


Of Flames and Leaves

by mnkm



Series: Pokémon: Of This and That [1]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: FireRed & LeafGreen | Pokemon FireRed & LeafGreen Versions
Genre: Adventure, F/F, Multi, Shoujo-ai, Yuri
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-26
Updated: 2019-01-26
Packaged: 2019-03-09 09:30:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 22
Words: 48,859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13478598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mnkm/pseuds/mnkm
Summary: After a light console-bash, an impatient girl is sent to the world of Pokémon as her in-game character Ignis. Suddenly, she's sent on a journey with her 'childhood' friend Terra and a swords-wielding girl Hana to fill the Pokédex... and stop an evil syndicate in the meanwhile, but that was less important.





	1. Classic Memories and White Titans

**Author's Note:**

> This is a rewritten version of the old story posted on FFN.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A girl gets transported to the world of Pokémon. Except not yet.

Slim fingers rapidly pressed against various keys. She blinked once- no, twice, as she typed her messages to her friends. A notification sound played, followed by another. She groaned.  _Will it ever stop...?_ she wondered. As fast as possible, the girl continued switching between people, answering their questions that seemed to coincidentally swarm against her at this same moment. After a few seconds, questions stopped appearing and she slowly found herself finally being able to relax.

"My God, that was tiring..." she finally rasped, pushing herself back. "Having to find all that crap just because they're too incompetent to do their work... ugh."

Waiting a few seconds to see if anyone else would rely on her, she found herself sighing with relief when nobody bothered her anymore- and she logged off her social media account. She closed the FaceDesk tab and, tired of the thought of friends, closed the lid of her laptop.

Finally, she could relax and do something she enjoyed, and not be bothered by her stupid kindness of always helping her friends.

...she frowned. Was there  _anything_ for her to do though...? Her frown worsened. She pulled open her desk- school worksheets, test papers, random sketches and doodles. Nothing fun.

She pulled open another section of her desk. Stationary, more folded worksheets, old GBA console, cards. She wasn't in the mood for cards, so...  _yeah, no._

The girl felt frustration creep up her body. There was absolutely nothing for her to spend her time on, and she certainly didn't want to go back to doing quick research just to answer her friends' lazy questions.

"Damn, isn't there anything for me to do?" A few seconds passed, and she sighed. There was only one thing to do. "...let's go out."

On the way out, she was warned by her elder sister about the dangers of staying out too late, and some statistics of kidnapping occurrences. Not that she really paid attention.

The teen girl made her way towards a local game store that she used to frequent in the past. Her smile grew when she spotted copies of the hottest games, Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, on display. her eyes then wandered onto the price tags- way out of her reach. Then again, now that she thought about it, she rarely ever had enough money asides from spending them at the school canteen, so the prices wouldn't have really mattered anyways. It had already been out of her range in the first place.

Sighing, she turned around. It'd look stupid to just gaze at some games like an idiot if she couldn't get it.

Then she spotted an old woman, hooded with a mysterious cloak, sitting near a turn on the sidewalk. She had a weird box placed on her... stand. The girl went over to the old lady's stand to check it out. "What're you selling, miss?" she asked.

Without moving an inch, the old lady's eyes dryly aimed at her. She felt a bit unsettled, but shook it off, as the mysterious lady began talking. "Young girl. Nice to meet you... would you be interested in some classic memories?" she asked.

 _Classic memories?_ The girl mentally rolled her eyes. It sounded stupid, this old granny's phrasing. She stared into the box and noticed some game cartridges... wait, she slightly recognized those cartridges. No, it wasn't just slightly- she knew them! Those were old Pokémon games from the past, ones that she had played before. "T-those are... wow! Granny, you've got quite a collection here!"

The mysterious lady chuckled. "Indeed. Why, I was quite an avid Trainer back then... but that asides," she said, "are you interested in reliving old experiences once more?"

"Well..." What other options did she have? There was practically nothing else for her to do at home, and here lied a great opportunity to spend her time raising her dream team again! She certainly wasn't stupid. This was an easy choice. It's obviously- "Of course!" But as soon as she answered, she remembered something. "...oh, wait, I don't have enough money to be spending on games..." An internal conflict brewed inside her mind again.  _Why am I so unlucky, God damn it!?_

"That's fine," the lady interrupted her thoughts. "I am simply looking for someone to take these off my hands. You do not need to pay for these," she said.

"Whoa, for real?" the girl asked, incredulous. In response to the woman nodding, she squealed and hugged the box with joy. "Thank you so much, granny! I promise I'll raise amazing teams for your sake, and kick everyone's ass!"

"Sure, sure..." the lady said and nodded, seemingly enjoying the innocence of an excited Trainer.

The girl, meanwhile, couldn't believe how lucky her day was becoming.  _This is the best day ever!_ She ran back home, box in her arms, her imagination fueling. Doors were slammed open and shut, voices were raised about being quiet, and other things she didn't care about- happened.

When she was finally safe in her room, all alone with no one to intrude on her fun, she smiled and opened the box. Her hands reached for the cartridges and grabbed several, setting them on her desk and spreading them apart. A wave of disappointment took over her when she noticed that most of the 'cartridges' were just carved wood painted dark grey. Only two were actually authentic cartridges: FireRed and LeafGreen, of the third generation.

 _Damn it_ , she mentally cursed. She had been hoping for other generations too. The girl knew about the newer generations, the games that she had been hoping would be included in the box: Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, HeartGold, SoulSilver, Black, White, Black 2, White 2, X, Y, Omega Ruby, Alpha Sapphire, Sun, Moon, Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. She had only played up to Black and White, having slowly gotten bored of the series as she played up to that point. It was around the time of Black 2 and White 2 that she stopped playing Pokémon for good due to life events and... well, no good reason, really.

Of course, she kept up with the news and knew of the later games, but hadn't been bothered to remember much of what she learnt. Thus her knowledge on the newer generations were greatly limited.

 _Oh well_ , she thought.  _I can always buy them later if I save money... time to eat less, I guess._ With that thought, she brought her focus back onto the Generation III cartridges. She hadn't played these for a long time, memories of her team surfacing. She definitely should get back into Pokémon again.

The girl grabbed an old GBA console from somewhere in her desk, tested the batteries, and slid in the cartridge for FireRed. She booted the game up and began playing.

She named her character 'Ignis' and, despite the name choice, she picked Bulbasaur as her starter. Then, progressing through the introduction, she prepared to battle her game rival... until the console froze.

"...seriously?" Groaning, she hit the GBA once. The encounter music resumed for a split second, before it froze again. She sighed, hitting the console some few more times. It suddenly turned pitch black, no trace of electricity running through the machine. "Hey, what gives...?" The battery light was green, so there was no way it could've ran out of juice. She scratched her head, but after minutes of thinking, the girl gave up and threw the console onto the ground. "You're trash," she whispered.

Suddenly, it beeped. She frowned. It... beeped. The girl picked it up.

_KNOW YOUR PLACE, HUMAN._

That's what the screen said, in white text.

The girl stared, before she chuckled. "What kind of joke is this?" she asked.

 _CONSIDER THIS A WARNING.  
_ _ONE MORE ACT OF UNJUST VIOLENCE AND THERE SHALL BE CONSEQUENCES._

"Pft. Whatever." She threw it back onto the ground without a care. No matter how weird it was, it was probably a prank. Someone probably did something to her Game Boy.

_...YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED._

She didn't see that last message as she was busy wondering what else she could do, now that her only working console was busted. The machine suddenly glowed, light attacking her vision.

"What the flippin'-"

A loud screeching noise played throughout the room, and as she made to grab for the console again, the brightest flash happened and she couldn't feel anything anymore.

Or more like... she was no longer there.

* * *

" _Hey, I think her eyes twitched._ "

" _I think she's waking up, brothers._ "

" _Did you just... assume all our genders?_ "

" _Oh, there he goes again._ "

She pushed her eyes open, wondering where she was. She saw white everywhere no matter where her head turned.  A wall might not even exist around here, the girl realized as her mind slowly adjusted to the situation. Surrounding her were six giant white hills, each with a white titan resting behind them, numbering a total of  _seven_ giants. Each giants had a roman numeral that marked them, from  **I** to  **VII**.

"...what the hell?" was the first thing she could say. It was the only thing she could think to say, to be fair.

One of the giants, labelled **VI** , waved to her. " _Hey there, young girl. Having a good time?_ it asked."

She stared at the giant, unsure of how to respond. Was it being sarcastic? Or was it expecting an actual answer? Would a normal person answer right away in this situation?  _No, no way._ She shook her head. Of course not, no normal person would be calm at this situation. Then again, she wasn't raising hell at all, but she definitely wasn't calm inside.

A different giant, labelled **II** , shook his head. " _Now, now. Clearly she's not feeling well in our presence, you don't expect her to answer that normally, did you?_ "

" _I don't know_ ,"  **IV** responded. " _I mean, if she's brave enough to be naked, I'm sure she's feeling quite well._ "

... _wait, what!?_ The girl looked down at her body- no tracing of clothes anywhere. No underwear scattered nearby, no bras littered in the empty space, no clothes or jackets. It was just her and her nude body, all in plain view. "What the flippin' fuck!?" She quickly covered her body with her arms, to no avail.

 **I** rubbed his chin. " _Well, there goes the fun_ ," he commented.

To the girl's right,  **VII** clapped his hands. " _Come on, missy. No need to be shy, let's reveal yourself!_ "

 **III** shook his head. " _You guys, I swear..._ "

Almost all the giants suddenly exploded into some sort of discussion about her body. She felt increasingly uncomfortable with the situation, still with no understanding whatsoever.

Then,  **V** banged the white hill... rather, they seemed to be tables. Huge white tables.  **V** banged his white table with his hands, loud enough to silence all the other titans. " _...finally. Now, you..._ " he pointed to the girl, who trembled slightly from the display of mere power. " _Tell me, do you recall anything about your life?_ " he asked.

She gulped. This one seemed somewhat reliable, at least more than the other titans. "...yeah."

He nodded his head, seemingly satisfied. " _That is good. Allow me to explain your situation to you, young girl._ " Clearing his throat, he straightened his back. " _You see, our mistress has decided that you are the destined one to fulfill the world's prophecy._ "

"A... prophecy?" She knew immediately what the situation was.  _This was one of those stupid legendary hero summoning stories..._ she thought, frowning.  _God damn it, I don't want to be dragged into this mess..._ clearing her mind, she nodded slowly. "What's the prophecy?" She figured it couldn't be that clichéd.

" _...that's... the problem_ ,"  **II** interrupted. " _The prophecy was simply that 'a great girl' will come to save Kanto_ , he explained.  _We know pretty much nothing else._ "

The girl felt like screaming. That was the stupidest and least detailed prophecy she ever... heard...? "Wait, Kanto?"

 **III** nodded. " _Yeah, the region of Kanto. You know?_ "

That was a Pokémon region, where the first generation and third generation's FireRed and LeafGreen took place. Was this a world of Pokémon?

If that were the case... who the hell are these weird ass white titans?

The girl shook her head, laughing. "You're kidding, right?"

As she laughed in denial, the other titans exchanged glances. " _I'm not sure why you think that, but no. Kanto will soon be in danger, according to the prophecy_ ,"  **VI** replied.

The awkward laughter died, and the girl was left staring up at the titans from below. "...n-no way. There's no way I'm in the Pokémon world right now..."

 **V** stared. " _...are you sure you are feeling fine?_ " he asked. " _You are a human of our world, as far as I am concerned._ "

"...say what?" The more they talked, the more nonsensical information she was hearing. "As far as I'm concerned, I'm  _not_ from the Pokémon world!"

 **VII** rubbed his fingers together. " _Interesting..._ " he said. " _Very well, then. Please tell us what your world was like, young missy._ "

Given the chance, she did just that. She explained whatever she recalled from her history classes, and how certain things worked in her world. She told of the various media and entertainment in her world, and how Pokémon was a fictional concept by some Japanese guy. She also told them of how humans made imaginary territories for their own native people, started wars, et cetera. After what felt like an hour, she panted as she came to a stop. "And that's... my world... and you guys are fiction!" she finished.

The titans remained silent. " _That was... truly fascinating_ ,"  **I** commented. " _To think that we were simply fictional creations of some human being... how shocking!_ "

" _That can't be the case though_ ,"  **IV** interrupted. " _Our world also has fictional stories of worlds where Pokémon are not real and are simply fictional creations. We could very well say that she's from a world created by our world too._ "

" _This is quite confusing_ ,"  **VII** said. " _What if both worlds are real existing worlds, and each being fiction was just a coincidence?_ "

 **V** shook his head. " _If it were a coincidence, it'd be quite a coincidental coincidence. We shall ask our mistress later._ " He leaned down to stare at the girl. " _For now, I want you to take over the life of a trainer in Pallet Town._ "

She nodded. "That doesn't sound too complicated. I think I know what I'll have to do..."

The titans nodded in agreement. " _That's right_ ,"  **II** said. " _You'll just have to become the Ignis of our world for now._ "

...that was the name she used to name her player character. This was some trippy coincidence, alright. "Wait, what happens to your world's Ignis if I replace her?" she asked.

They glanced at each other. " _You see_ ,"  **V** spoke again, " _we may have accidentally caused the death of this world's Ignis... and we mistook you as her, since you look identical to her._  "

"I... do?" The girl gave it some more thought. These were all things that couldn't have been pure chance- at least she felt like her world definitely was the original one, and that the Pokémon world was the game world. "That'd... probably make things easier, then. How'd she die though?"

 **VI** laughed. " _We put an important and deadly weapon that the mistress entrusted to us, in the girl's shelf!_ "

She face-palmed. "Why the hell would you do that!?"

 **V** nodded. " _A good question, indeed..._ " he murmured, glaring at  **III** , who escaped his gaze by whistling at the air. " _Anyways, we don't fully understand the situation as well, so we'll try to find out more about your situation. I take it I can rely on you to do your part?_ " he asked.

She decided that she should probably accept the task given to her. She  _did_  kind of feel like she owed them something, for listening to her and not killing her. "Sure, I think I can do it."

" _We thank you, girl._ "  **I** bowed graciously. " _We grant you the name **Ignis** and save the Kanto region_ ," he prayed.

A circle of light formed beneath the girl's feet. She was slightly surprised, but then became calm. "Make sure you guys at least find out something, please?" she asked.

 **V**  didn't say anything, nor did any of the other titans, but they all nodded. Their blank faces with the roman numerals were the last thing she saw before she disappeared.


	2. A New Journey Or Something

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The girl, now Ignis, sets off with her 'childhood' friend Terra on a well-deserved journey.

The girl woke up on a bed, looking up to the ceiling of her room. She lied there for a while, slightly dazed, before managing to push herself up and look around. The interior of the room was completely foreign to her- there was nothing she could recognize at all, not even the bed's sheets. And the view outside the window... it was like she was in a whole new world.

...oh. "Right..." she whispered, getting off the bed. There was a nearby mirror that she took a glance at. She looked just like the default male trainer from the games, except her body had breasts, was slimmer and curvy, and had long hair. And she definitely was a lot taller, too. A bit too tall, she supposed, but what would she know? Games are games.

Now known as **Ignis** , the girl grabbed her hat and put it on, rotating it just slightly sideways. Now she was ready for... well, whatever the world was going to throw at her.

Oh, and before she left... the girl remembered a classic starting feature for every game. She checked her new room's PC and withdrew a Potion, the healing item materializing in front of the screen and onto the desk. Grabbing it, she stuffed it within the bag lying next to the table, hung one of its arms on her shoulder, and walked downstairs.

"Ignis?" a mature voice called. "You're awake now?" the woman downstairs asked, looking up from the sink.

She stared briefly, before remembering who this probably was in the games. "Y-yes, mom," she hastily replied.  _Calling a stranger your mom feels kinda strange..._ she thought.

Her supposed mother smiled. "It's about time. Your friend's waiting at the professor's lab, as usual."

"Um, okay. Thanks, mom."  Ignis walked down the stairs and past the dining table. She noticed there was a plain toast with butter on one dish, and another somewhat delectable plate of omelette with rice.

"You can have breakfast right now while I wash the other dishes. I'll have the toast later," her mother said.

 _Really? Sweet._ Ignis was about to sit down in front of the nice meal, but she frowned mentally.  _But... that's not right._ She was about to go on an adventure (probably?), leaving her mother for who knows how long? If anything, she remembered encountering the mother from her playthrough of the second generation games. She sure as hell missed her son, Red. Even if this wasn't her real mother, she was pretty sure she'd feel bad later for ditching her mother like this. And if anything, her counterpart- the real Ignis- probably wouldn't have appreciated this either. Ignis smiled, and decided against sitting down. "No, it's fine. I'm not feeling that hungry right now," she said.

The mother seemed rather surprised. "Are you sure? A growing teen like you needs lots of nutrients, you know?"

She shook her head with a smile. "No, I think you should have them both, mom. It's the least I can give to you before leaving."

Quiet for a while, her mother gave her a sad smile in defeat. "I guess you're right." She closed the tap and dried her hands, sitting down on a chair. "Even if you're grown up now, it still worries me slightly how you will fare on your journey..." Sighing, she clapped her hands together and prayed.

"I'll be going now, mom." Her mother nodded in response as Ignis headed out the house. She stopped and turned around to give her fake mother one last glance. "And... well, mom?"

The mother looked up again. "Yes, Ignis?"

Hesitant, Ignis finally showed a confident smile. She didn't know the relationship within her family, she didn't know whether the real Ignis actually liked her mother at all or not. But as a daughter, this was something she could at least do. "I love you, mom. Thanks for everything you've done." Despite the awkwardness of saying that to a complete stranger, she felt somewhat sad at leaving this kind-looking woman.

Her mother nodded. "Stay safe, Ignis."

The girl left without looking back, hoping her mother didn't cry or anything from that.

* * *

The first place she headed towards was the lab. She remembered in the games that the professor wasn't there, and that you had to attempt to go outside the town to trigger the first event, but she had something else she wanted to check out. Her friend, the one her supposed mother mentioned. She wanted to see if the game's Gary- or Blue- would really be as cocky and arrogant as they were shown to be.

When she pushed the door open, she was greeted with lots of artificial light. And a sight of many scientists conducting their research in peace. Or at least, it seemed peaceful. Also, the lab was a lot bigger than she expected. "Whoa, this place is  _huge_..."

"Ah, Ignis! You're here!" one of the scientists called out. She put down her papers and ran over to the teen. "Grandpa's still at his house, but he'll be coming here soon. Why don't you come in and look over some of samples with me?" she asked.

 _Who the heck is this?_ she wondered. She didn't recall any female character that she should've been close with. Granted, there was that one female NPC in Professor Oak's lab, but that was just that- a mob NPC. And wait, did she just call the professor her grandpa? But that means... that this girl is supposed to be Gary!? "Uh, sure, Gary. Garia. Eh." Oh wait, Gary had a sister, she recalled. Maybe this was Daisy.

The scientist, with long brown hair, gave her an odd look. "Where'd you get those names from, some cartoons online?" she asked.  _Okay, I guess it's not Daisy. But who...?_  She then chuckled. "Stop being silly and get in here." Grabbing the teen by the arm, she dragged the black-haired girl inside and closed the door. Her rival dragged her towards a test tube to look inside it, where a small embryo of sorts was floating in an oddly blue liquid. "Look at this, Ignis. It's got small snubby arms now! It's growing quite fast for a mysterious lifeform..."

 _Wait, this definitely wasn't something she knew from the games._ Ignis nodded as she directed her eyes somewhere else, all around the lab. There were a lot more scientists here than she remembered as well. There was still that weird machine she never understood in the lab, but there were even more machines scattered around as well.

"...Ignis? You seem distracted," the scientist girl that was probably her friend said. "Is something bothering you?" she asked.

"O-oh, um, nothing." Ignis quickly defended herself, faking a smile. "Just wondering what the ol' man's going to say," she said.

Her friend smiled. "Well, of course you'd be curious. Even I have no clue what he wants to tell everyone here."

The black-haired girl nodded. "Yeah. I bet he's got, uh, something amazing to show us!"

Agreeing completely with her, the brown-haired scientist squealed at the limitless possibilities. "Maybe he's getting another award... that ol' man of mine, yes!"

The door swung open and, along with the other scientists who were eager for their leader, Ignis turned around to see the classic old man she knew and respected. "Professor Oak!" she exclaimed at the same time as everyone else.

"Yes, I'm here," the old professor responded with a smile. "I'm sorry I was late. I just couldn't find where I placed some important things..." he explained, scratching his head sheepishly. Wasting no time, he closed the door and walked deeper into the lab, to an area Ignis recognized as the spot where he gives players the Starter Pokémon in the game. "I need everyone to gather around. Especially Ignis and Terra," he said.

Their curiosity rising rapidly, everyone stopped what they were doing. Those who were doing incredibly important things resumed their work, but with a faster pace as they couldn't help but wonder as well.

He sat down on a lone chair and looked at them. "As you all know, our researches have been advancing quite a lot these few years," he began. "We've discovered a lot about Pokémon themselves, and about the bonds between them and their trainers and its effects. It's quite amazing, really."

"I know, right?" a random scientist said. "Who  _knew_ Eevee's face can change to resemble their trainers? I never even noticed that with mine!"

 _Eevee's faces do what?_ Ignis felt incredulous. Was this a Pokédex entry in some game? Not that she ever checked it, but that kind of detail would've definitely been infamous on the Internet. _Maybe it's from one of the newer games_ , she supposed.

Nodding, Oak let out a contented sigh. "I'm sure you all have to agree though, that a lot of these accomplishment were thanks to Ignis and my granddaughter, Terra."

A round of applause occurred all around her and the female scientist, the latter bowing and accepting all the praises, while she stood there in shock.  _I'm the professor's assistant here!?_ she asked herself. "T-thank you, everyone," she managed to squeeze out in the middle of all the congratulations. "It's been a huge, um, pleasure."

Professor Oak shook his head. "No, we thank  _you_ two for all the help you've been. And I had been thinking, _what could I possible do for your birthdays?_  When you turned down the offer to go on a journey many years back, and said you wanted to help me with my research instead... boy, I was really glad and surprised."

"Y-yeah... I guess you'd be," the black-haired heroine said.  _I did_ what _now?_

"It really touched me, but thinking of all the experiences and thrill that you're missing out on... I think it's really unfair for the both of you. That's why," he paused and got up, walking over to his personal desk. He took a package from under his coat and, tearing the wrapping apart, he set the torn pieces on the table and walked back to them. "I present to you and Terra, these two Pokédex that my colleagues from other regions and I had developed together."

"G-grandpa, are you...?" her friend, Terra, rasped. "Are you really s-saying...?"

Oak nodded. "That's right, Terra. I believe it's time you two officially started your Pokémon journey, as adults."

Her brown-haired friend let out a loud squeal, capturing her grandfather in a tight hug out of sheer joy. "Grandpa! Thank you, thank you, thank you very much! I'm so happy!"

"T-there, there, Terra! A bit too tight with your hugs, now!" Oak rasped. He noticed Ignis staring at him, and smiled weakly. "W-what about you, Ignis? Or are you just simply speechless by this decision?" he asked. "I'm sorry for suddenly springing this onto you, but I really think you and my granddaughter deserves to explore the world out there."

The girl flinched. "O-oh, um... yeah! That just really surprised me, I didn't know how to... wow." Inside her mind, she had even more questions raised.  _Wait, what did he mean by adults? We're just ten years old kids! Is that really adult already!?_  "If it's what you think is right, then I suppose it's fine..."

"What're you saying, Ignis?" Terra said, wrapping an arm around her neck. "Weren't you initially the one most excited about the thought of a Pokémon adventure? Silly you!" she exclaimed, and laughed as she danced around with her friend in arm.

"That's right. And thus, with that said..." Oak suddenly raised an arm. "Happy eighteenth birthday, you two."

Party poppers exploded all around them. The other scientists had been preparing for this moment as well, and the two almost jumped in shock, haven't been expecting that.

 _I-it's today!? Eighteenth!?_  Ignis found it hard to keep up with the events. She feigned a smile as everyone began congratulating her, cheering for her, grabbing her hand and shaking it, all the party stuff. Terra seemed like she was having lots of fun, and after staring at her face for a while, the girl felt herself softening.  _Ah well. Might as well as enjoy this for now_ , she thought.

* * *

After the long party of celebrations, it was around afternoon when they finally decided they should leave. They had even been given an option to choose from the three Starter Pokémon, just like the games. Their other colleagues came with them to the entrance of Pallet Town, intent on seeing them off as well.

Professor Oak smiled and waved. "I really hope you two make the best out of your journeys," he said. "We're going to miss you two a lot while you're away from the lab."

"Don't worry, grandpa!" Terra exclaimed. "I'm sure we'll both be fine. After all, I got Ignis with me!" she said and hugged the girl.

"H-hey, you..." Ignis muttered.

"It's a shame your mother didn't want to celebrate with us though," the professor then said sadly. "But I guess I can understand how she feels. It's tough not crying in front of your own child," he said. "I hope you understand her feelings, Ignis."

The ravenette shook her head. "It's fine, I think I understand." She took a brief glance at her new house, wondering what her mother was doing now- her fake mother, that is. She only arrived in this world a few hours ago, and only interacted with her new mother for a few minutes- but she already felt somewhat sad at leaving the kind woman. Maybe she should see her one last time... but then again, she'd probably feel worse if this world's Ignis' mother cried because of her. "Please tell her I love her, professor." Turning around, she began walking away. "I promise I'll keep your granddaughter safe!"

Terra turned slightly red. "W-what, you're really going to be my protector? I can do that myself, stupid..."

Professor Oak laughed. "I'll make sure you hold on to your words, Ignis. Have a safe trip!"

"Ignis! Terra! Farewell, our great friends!" many of the scientists shouted.

The two smiled and waved back as they silently walked away.

"...Still, even though you told me before, I didn't think you'd pick that Bulbasaur instead."

"Y-yeah, well, despite liking fire... I guess I found myself wanting Bulbasaur instead."

"You're weird no matter how I see it, but you're definitely you."

 _I guess this world's Ignis had good taste_ , the girl supposed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Team IGNIS:** Bulbasaur (Lv5)


	3. The Worst Man and Woman Existing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The duo meets Hana, a blonde swordsgirl, and a parcel to deliver.

Ignis threw her hand forward, confident smile on her face. "Basil! Tackle!" she commanded.

" _Saur!_ " It nodded and rushed forward, slamming its body against a nearby bird Pokémon. The winged creature spiraled into a tree, a cry of surprise slipping out on impact with the wooden surface. It dropped to the ground, unconscious, comical swirly eyes on its expression.

"Great job, Basil!" the black-haired girl said. Her Pokémon smiled, a happy cry in response.

Her childhood friend, meanwhile, clapped in awe. "Wow, Iggy! That was really cool!" she said. "It's like... like you have actually experience as a Trainer!"

"W-well..."

"Compared to you, I'm not confident in battling at all, and we both just started our journey together!" the brunette exclaimed.

Ignis didn't know how to counter that. "E-eh... yeah, I guess it's actually a lot simpler than it seems. Maybe that's why."  _Well, to be fair, I_ did _play all those games for a reason..._ she thought. She had that typical embarrassing childhood where she trained to become a Pokémon Trainer in real life, just because she wished that one day God or whatever higher deity would make Pokémon into a real-life creature and allow her to start her own journey in the real world. _What a stupid delusional wish that was_ , she now realized.

But getting back to her thoughts, she decided to try and process everything she knew about this world. So far, chronologically, the Ignis of the Pokémon world declined the offer to start her ten-years old journey. Most children become official trainers at ten-years old, but this world's Ignis didn't, for unknown reasons. Instead, she opted to help with Professor Oak's Pokémon research instead, along with her childhood friend Terra, the professor's granddaughter. Then, at some point yesterday- the day before their eighteenth birthday together, this world's Ignis died due to some...thing.

That reminds her. What  _were_ those seven white titans? Not trying to be racist or anything. But she definitely hasn't ever seen white giants in the Pokémon series. Were they part of another Pokémon species? Was it something new from the Sun and Moon or Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon packs? She had no idea. _On second thoughts, maybe spoiling myself and keeping up with the news would've helped me a lot here..._ but then again, it's not like she expected to be whisked away to the Pokémon world.

"Iggy? You alright?" Terra asked, disrupting her train of thoughts. "You've been kinda distant a lot lately, even back in the lab. Is something bothering you?" she pressed.

"Oh, um..." The girl rummaged through her mind for an excuse to give. She then recalled something the professor said... "I'm just, you know. Worried about the others back at the lab. Since they  _are_ pretty hopeless without us, a-am I right?" she said, shrugging. She didn't actually know if those scientists were also amazing, or her and Terra were just exceptionally smart compared to them.

Terra seemed to stare at her for a while, before smiling. "Yeah, you got a point there."  _Ouch. Poor scientists_ , Ignis thought. "I guess I'm also slightly worried. But I believe in them... hopefully they don't blow up grandpa's lab."

... _what the hell did the scientists do in the past?_ Never mind, Ignis probably didn't want to know. She feigned a smile, glad that excuse worked out. "S-say, aren't you going to let your Squirtle out too?" she asked.

Terra looked at her own Pokéball hanging by her belt. "Oh. Well... sure, I guess. Especially since your Bulbasaur looks really happy walking besides you."

She looked at her own Pokémon, trudging happily besides her leg, and couldn't help letting out a chuckle. "Aw. Carefree fella."

The brunette grabbed her Pokéball and threw it up, a red beam shooting to the ground. Her turtle Pokémon soon appeared, a confident grin on its face. " _Squirtle!_ "

"I'm going to call you... uh... something cool like Iggy's... um..." Brainstorming for a few seconds, she couldn't come up with any odd names. "Go, Squirty?"

"Pft. Squirty." Ignis tried to hide her chuckling, but obviously anyone would notice. "R-really cool name, Terra."

"S-shut up, hey!" the girl exclaimed, slightly embarrassed. "It sounds more normal than some Basil thing!"

" _Saur!_ " Ignis' Pokémon growled.

"S-sorry, Basil. But yeah!"

Ignis rolled her eyes. "I think it's cool."

Terra looked away, pouting. "So do I! In fact, it's really cool!"

 _...she's a weird girl._ Ignis leaned down and patted the Squirtle. "Well, hey. It's not that bad of a name. Squirty is pretty nice as well, I guess."

Terra's cutesy pout dissipated, a smile replacing her cloudy mood. "Well, if you say so, Iggy."

"And stop calling me Iggy."

"Nah." Terra put a finger on her chin, as if thinking of something puzzling. Then, she smiled, lightly slapping Ignis' back. "Oh well. Even if Squirty is Squirty, I'm still better at squirting!"

"..." Ignis stared at her supposed childhood friend like she was some crazy psycho. "... _w-what are you saying!?_ " she eventually exclaimed, her face painted pure tomato red in embarrassment. This was definitely not the kind of topic that should suddenly appear between friends. " _A-a-are you an idiot!?"_

Terra, realizing that what she bragged about may not have been something people actually bragged about, also blushed furiously. "W-well, I mean... you know. Remember that wild night we had some years ago?" she suddenly asked. Ignis stared at her incredulously-  _you're keeping this topic going!?_ "I mean, you know. We were just celebrating, yeah, about discovering something new about Ekans and how they eat..."

 _How'd that lead to whatever kinky shit happened!?_ Ignis had to ask mentally.

"And I know, we weren't eighteen yet. But who wouldn't want to try alcohol?" Terra asked. To be fair, that was a valid question. Even Ignis sometimes found herself wondering about the taste of adult drinks. "So yeah, we might have gotten a bit too drunk... and started doing naughty stuff... got down right dirty and kinky at some point..." Terra said. "...and I might have lied and said that it was spilled drinks the next morning..." she whispered, but the heroine definitely caught onto that part.

"W-what!?" she accidentally blurted out.  _You're telling me this world's Ignis was into watersports!?_ Almost panicking, Ignis yelled a string of nonsensical words inside her head.  _Well, actually, they were drunk... calm down._

"I- I know, that was a terrible mistake. Shouldn't have lied. Bad me..." the brunette said, barely putting up any defense. "...b-but hey, yeah! When it comes to squ-"

"A-alright, end of topic," Ignis quickly interrupted her friend. "Saaaave that stuff for later. Or never. Or... eh."

"Sure."

An awkward silence took over the two, walking through Route 1 in silence. A single thought came to the girl's mind.

_...these two girls have got to be crazy..._

* * *

After having her childhood friend try battling a Rattata, the two reached the nearby Viridian City. "Let's visit the Poké Mart," Ignis suggested. "We could buy useful things there."

"Yeah, I knew that," Terra said. "We've been here few times before. But this time I didn't bring my wallet... I might have forgot it at home and left the town before I went back to get it." Sighing, she stared at Ignis. "Should we go back and get ours?"

Ignis stared. "Nah, I got mine."

The brunette frowned. "You didn't also forget?"

"Why would you ever leave your wallet at home before going outside the house?" Ignis asked.

Terra stared. And stared. And stared. "...sometimes I wish you'd stop saying things that makes sense."

"You're welcome." The two walked into the blue-roofed mart together, and were overwhelmed by a loud shout from across the store.

"Hey! You two!"

The black-haired girl flinched, and looked at the direction of the person who shouted. It was the clerk behind the counter.  _Ah, this part._ This was when they'd get a parcel to deliver to the professor, if she recalled. The extremely loud shouting was new though. Even the other customers in the mart jumped in surprise. "H-hello!" she greeted the clerk.

The woman smiled. "I remember you two! You two used to come here a lot with Professor Oak," she said. "Man, I remember how adorable you two were back then. So small, cute, like... I'd totally kidnap you two if it were legal."

...the girl took a step back.

Terra just laughed it off, however. "Thank you. Are you doing okay?" she asked. That calmness was something she didn't expect Terra to have.

"Oh, yes, I'm doing fine. My family too, we're still taking it easy." The clerk and Terra suddenly became buried in a conversation that didn't particularly interest Ignis. Several minutes must have passed, because the clerk next to them- who had been serving another line of customers who decided to leave these chatterboxes be- coughed to get their attention. "Oh, sorry... oh, that's right. I just remembered!" She dug under the counter and pulled up a nostalgic parcel. "Professor Oak ordered these directly from Silph Co. Would you mind delivering these to him?" she asked.

Ignis shrugged. "Well... sure, I guess." The thought of having to return to the town that she had just departed from with a somewhat heavy mood was unsettling, but then again, that's what actually happened in the game. "You don't mind us going back there, right, Terra?"

"I guess not," the brunette replied. "Wouldn't hurt to see them again, one last time."

Nodding, they gave a salute to the clerks and exited the mart. "Huh, it went just as I expected," Ignis muttered. "Alrighty then, let's head back."

"Not going to stick around? You two seem cute," an uninvited voice asked.

The two frowned before quickly turning around, an unknown man suddenly standing between them and the mart entrance.

"What the-!?" the black-haired girl exclaimed. "Who are you!?"

The stranger in front of them, a slightly tall figure with spiky blonde hair, grinned. "That doesn't matter, dear. Care to be my toys?" he asked.

"Um, what?"

"Hey, hands off!" Terra exclaimed, wrapping her arms around her childhood friend. "She's mine!"]

" _Um, what?_ "

Shrugging, the man peered over their shoulders and frowned. "Oh well. I'm running out of time... see you two cuties later," he said and departed from there. The man rushed towards the forests and, to the two girls' surprise, leaped onto the peak of the trees and ran off tip-toeing with some sheer balance.

Ignis stared at the trail of dust left by the odd person.  _Okay, there's no way I'm supposed to know that guy._ She turned to her childhood friend. "Who was that?"

"Beats me," the brunette replied. "Never seen him in my life."

"T-that... just now..." yet another voice rasped. The two turned around again to see yet another blonde stranger, this time not taller but around their own height. She had a sheathed sword equipped on her belt, for reasons unknown to both girls. "...was the most devilish scum to roam the surface of our... planet..."

"...you okay?" Ignis asked. "You sure are out of breath."

Her brunette friend raised an eyebrow. "I mean, judging by the situation... she definitely was chasing that other guy." A few seconds of silence passed before she frowned. "Oh, um. Should we have... stopped that weirdo?" she then asked.

The blonde woman shook her head, stamina slowly recovering. "T-that's alright. He always... s-slips away in the end." Breathing in and out, the girl restored her composure and sighed. "My name's Hana Kanazawa, daughter of a high-ranked worker of Silph Co. I'm an aspiring Pokéball manufacturer and part-time assassin for hire. I only target assholes. Like that guy," she introduced. "...well, specifically that guy."

Ignis and Terra exchanged glances. "Ooookay then... he seemed like a playboy." They exchanged another glance, before Ignis began, "is he yo-"

"He is  _not_ my ex," Hana interrupted.

"...well that just confuses me even more," Terra said. "What could he have done to be so hated?"

"Trust me," the blonde replied. "You do  _not_ want me to get started on that."

 _...okay, but that name tho_ _ugh_ , Ignis eventually thought. The blonde's name being virtually a parody of a singer from her own world, there was no way the Pokémon world had been coexisting with the real world this entire time. Her world must definitely be the main world in which the Pokémon world draws inspiration from. Thinking realistically, it could've just been a coincidental one of many different dimensions where the creatures just so happen to align with Satoshi Tajiri's ideas, but then again, for it to have someone with this similar of a name is just utterly stupid and definitely couldn't be a coincidence.

"And... the sword?" she asked.

"It is for a just cause," Hana replied.

Terra put a finger to her chin. "...so you're going to _actually_ kill him?"

"It is for a just cause," the blonde repeated.

Ignis then noticed the girl had no Pokéballs on her belt at all. "What Pokémon do you have?" she asked.

Hana tilted her head. "Pokémon? I don't believe in using Pokémon for murdering!" she declared.

"Yet you're fine with doing it yourself..."

"...well, truth be told," the blonde said, "I actually never thought about getting my own Pokémon yet." She sighed, looking down with a gloomy expression. "Father doesn't believe I'll be able to take proper care of my own Pokémon, so I was never given any Pokéballs to catch my first one with..."

Terra winced. "Yikes. Sounds like a pain. You  _could_ just buy Pokéballs from the mart though."

"..."

 _Slipped from her mind, huh?_ Ignis fought the instinct to chuckle at this. As adorable as the girl looked, finding humor in her mistake probably wouldn't do her any good. She cleared her throat, getting the stranger's attention. "Say, we're about to head back to Pallet Town for... reasons. Professor Oak there has one Pokémon there."

"...ohhhh, right," her brown-haired friend said and nodded. "That Charmander..."

"You interested?" Ignis asked the blonde.

Hana stared at her face, squinting her eyes in suspicion. "We're... not friends nor acquaintances at all. Why are you... offering me this?"

The ravenette shrugged. "Dunno. But hey, you can travel with us too, maybe?" She scratched her head. "If you're lucky, you might see that guy again."

"True... but... hmm." The blonde seemed to be in conflict with her own thoughts, pacing left and right to try and decide whether she should accept her offer. "I can't say I'm uninterested, that'd be a lie... but I'm also somewhat wary of you two whom I've just met..." Frustrated, the girl clutched her own head and mentally screamed at herself. She eventually came to a decision. "F-fine, I guess I'd be somewhat relieved if I get one of my own Pokémon..."

"That took quite some time," Terra whispered.

"Sure did..." Ignis said.

* * *

"So..." Professor Oak began. "...hello, I'm Oak. I'm a Pokémon researcher."

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Professor Oak." Hana bowed down, her head pressed against the floor. "My name is Hana, and I have heard and seen plenty of amazing miracles about you and your colleagues."

The other scientists around them exchanged glances. "Were we that famous...?" some asked each other.

"My  _bigger_ colleagues," Oak shortly explained.

"Ah. Makes sense."

Terra clapped her hands together. "Anyways, Grandpa! You've gotta give her a Pokémon, she really wants one!"

"N-n-not that much!" the blonde retorted, face red. "I'm just... i-if I can, then maybe I'll accept! I-it's not like I'm begging..."

The professor chuckled. "Well, it'd be quite sad to let this lone one stay here forever." He grabbed the final Pokéball and clicked its button, releasing the Pokémon inside. A familiar orange lizard with a burning tail made itself known to the world, a prideful cry with its arms raised. "Are you sure that you're up to the task? Raising a Pokémon can be quite a challenge, especially this species."

Hana couldn't deny it, that she was quite nervous about receiving her first Pokémon, but curiosity fought over her anxiety. She calmly reached for the lizard Pokémon, to which it jumped back from. "A-ah..."

" _Char!_ " it roared, though the voice came out as a cutesy squeak.

She shook her head. "No, I'm sure I can handle this. I have seen much worse challenges before on the TV."

"TV?" Ignis asked.

"Real life shows that tests the power of love and friendship and pits the heroes against the devil!"

Terra leaned towards her friend. "Cartoons," she whispered.

"Oh. So fake stuff."

"They're real!" Hana exclaimed. Regaining her composure, she cleared her throat. "A-anyways, Professor Oak. I'd be greatly honored to accept this... um... Pokémon from you."

The white-haired professor smiled. "Don't mention it, miss. If anything, I'm honored someone important like you is willing to help this poor soul out."

"If that is what you feel, then so be it." The blonde bowed again. "I do not have a Pokédex nor have I received one, but I promise I will try my best to also help you in any way, should you require my assistance."

The professor smiled. "How touching... but I'd love it if you focused on your journey and have a good time with this Charmander."

"I... I swear upon my life," Hana said. Kneeling on her knee, she offered a hand to the lizard. "Greetings, comrade. Would you be fine with accompanying me?"

The Charmander stared at her face before looking away. It didn't seem to accept her, but before anyone could comment on that, it got on top of the blonde's shoulder.

Hana wasn't sure what to say. "...I believe that's a yes?"

"I mean... I guess so," Ignis commented.

"What're you going to call it?" Terra asked.

The blonde racked inside her mind for a name. "...how about... Emma?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Team IGNIS:** Bulbasaur (Lv8)  
>  **Team TERRA:** Squirtle (Lv6)  
>  **Team HANA:** Charmander (Lv5)


	4. The Viridian Rodent Hunt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ignis discovers a Pikachu-hunting event.

"Viridian Forest?" Ignis repeated. "That sounds fami...  _oh_ , the forest with Pikachu!" she said in realization, more memories of her childhood flooding back.

Her brown-haired friend scratched her own head. "Well, I mean... yeah, Pikachu do live there, but they're pretty rare." She shrugged. "I would've gone with Caterpie or Weedle, really. Apparently there's so much, the forest is like the amusement park for Bug Catchers."

"To be fair, its reputation comes from the Pikachu, not the bugs," Hana pointed out from behind. "At least, that is what I recall."

"Touche," the brunette replied. "I doubt we'll find a Pikachu though."

"Pikachu, huh..." Thinking to herself, Ignis imagined a future compared to the anime's Ash and his partner Pikachu. Would she become someone as cheesy and cliched as Ash Ketchum if she got a Pikachu too?  _Nah, Red has a Pikachu and he's still cool._ The ravenette smiled as she made her decision. "I'm going to try and find one!" she said.

"I doubt you'll find any," Terra said. Her attempt of reassuring her friend deeply touched Ignis' heart.

Hana pointed towards the safe shelter in front of the forest. "There seems to be something going on here..." she said.

The ravenette followed her friend's gaze and saw a somewhat small crowd of people gathering at the entrance.  _Funny, that wasn't in the game._  She increased her pace slightly, wondering what other differences this experience had in store for her. As she got closer, some announcing guy's words started to become audible.

" _...and so... reward to... catch Pik... hour!_ "

Terra, unamused at what she heard, shrugged. "Yeah, everyone's making this into a big deal for no reason. It's just a Pikachu."

Her friend looked at her weird. "You heard all that?"

"Yeah, why?"

 _...curse me and my bad ears._ That was one of many things she hated about herself. Never mind that, doofus. Ignis looked back to the crowd and began picking up the full announcement.

"Again, I repeat!" the announcing man holding a megaphone said. "Them pesky pack of electric rodents have been stealing food from our market supplies lately. We must do something about it, and therefore I have decided to host this event!" he explained. "I will give out awards to those who can capture some Pikachu to reduce the amount from Viridian Forest."

"What's the reward anyways?" a young Bug Catcher asked.

The man smiled. "Depends on which you want, between money, or a super rare Pokémon!"

This seemed to garner more attention from the crowd, slowly earning more praise and excitement.

"Hey, there's an opportunity," Terra said. "You want to join, Iggy? You might even win a super rare Pokémon!"

Whether she should or not, however, she couldn't decide. Something seemed off about this whole promotion, specifically that man. Did he really have a super rare Pokémon to give away to someone? Is he giving it away just for helping catch Pikachu and bringing peace to his store, wherever it was? To begin with... why would this man have such a rare Pokémon and be a simple store owner? Then again, she recalled kid Trainers with deadly Pokémon in her childhood games. Those were hell.

Assuming there was probably nothing wrong with this, she decided to participate. "Sure, I guess. What could possible go wrong?"

"If you say so, Miss Ignis." Hana and Terra accompanied her, the latter somewhat eager at seeing a live Pikachu herself. The blonde didn't really mind that much, meanwhile, more focused on the opportunity to train inside the forest.

* * *

She surveyed the scene in front of her- an average crowd of random people were swiftly surfing through the tall grass within the forest, yelling out the name of the series' iconic mouse. In games, it would've looked like an ordinary event involving many NPCs, but here it seemed like chaos to her. Some Pokémon were rushing out the tall grass, escaping the wrath of disappointed Trainers. "This... this is terrible," she whispered.

"The least they could do is to respect the environment," Terra said. "Good lord, grandpa would be really furious at these people..."

They looked over to Hana, who was trying to calm a Camper down. "Please, you need to think about the damages and trouble you're causing for the Pokémon..."

"Hey! If you're here to interfere, then get lost!" the Camper exclaimed, tossing his green hat at the girl. "I'm here for the reward, so either help me or get lost!"

"Wha... you...!" The blonde felt rage surge up her body, but was restrained by her new friends before she could reach for her sword. "M-Miss  Ignis! This person is-"

"I- I know, calm down, Hana!" the ravenette said. "You can't just go around killing people, even if they're assholes!"

"We know how you feel, even we're somewhat angry!" Terra exclaimed. "But we're just three against a whole group of people! Let's calm down and think of some other way, okay?"

Calming down, the blonde stopped struggling. "...okay, I shall not take action yet, then."

The two let out sighs of relief. Hana was a lot stronger than they expected. _Then again, she_ does _carry a sword around everywhere..._ Ignis patted the blonde's head. "We'll see if we can do this hunt peacefully, alright?"

"...o-okay."

Whipping around, Ignis put a finger to her chin. "Now then... Pikachu are really rare in the forest, apparently. How would we go about finding one...?" she asked herself.

"Lure them with berries?" Terra suggested. "...not that we have any."

"That's a no, then."

Hana raised a finger. "We should offer something to show our assistance to them and their habitat," she said.

Ignis rolled her eyes. "Yeah, but we need to know where they are before we can offer anything."

"T-that is... not wrong." The blonde shrunk.

The girl then looked at a grove of trees. "...Terra, what would happen if I went off the path?" she asked.

Her friend's eyes narrowed, not sure what she was thinking of. "Well, these paths were paved by people so that we can travel with a bit more safety... Pokémon hide outside our man-made boundaries, so I guess you'd find more if you walked through the trees."

"...hey, this might not actually be that hard," Ignis suddenly concluded. Her friends exchanged confused glances.

"Iggy, what are you thinking of...?" the brunette asked.

Replying with nothing but a satisfied ' _hmph_ ', the girl spun her cap around and slowly walked towards some random trees.

"M-Miss Ignis! It is dangerous to stray off the safety path!"

"It'll be alright," the girl reassured. She crossed a tree, her hands keeping her balanced amidst the grove. There were much less space to walk around, so she had to be wary of encountering Pokémon hanging from the trees.  After a few steps, she suddenly felt her hand squishing something. Ignis looked up to see her hand pressing a struggling Weedle, barely the size of her hand. "W-whoa there..."

After she got her hand off it, the worm Pokémon angrily aimed its head at her. It leaped off the tree, attempting to drive its deadly poison needle into her.

Before anything else happened, however, a jolt of electricity suddenly struck the Weedle. It lightly squeaked before dropping to the ground, comical swirly eyes on its petite face. Ignis almost felt like quitting, but she figured she had to get a Pikachu because... who knows, she just wanted one. Turning to the source of the electricity, she immediately recognized the slight sight of a yellow tail darting to another tree.

The leaves shook a bit, some berries falling to the ground, then a Pikachu jumped towards yet another tree. It disappeared deeper into the uncharted territories of Viridian Forest.

"...guys, wait right here. I'll be back," Ignis told her friends waiting outside, and ran after the Pikachu into the darkness.

" _I-Ignis / Miss Ignis!_ " 

She trusted the two wouldn't do something stupid while she was gone. Chasing after the yellow blur, she lost track of time as she kept taking careful turns avoiding fatal tree crashes. Eventually she stopped at a small cleared path, with barely any trees around, forming a circular area. In the center of the empty clearing was a lone tree with many yellow rodents.

"...how do people not know about a giant lone tree in the middle of a forest?" Ignis whispered to herself. Shrugging the question off her mind, she slowly made her way towards the trees. The many Pikachu seemed wary of her, gazing curiously at her footsteps. The closer she got, the tenser they seemed.

One Pikachu jumped off a branch, growling at her. " _Pika!_ "

 _Um..._ she scratched her head lightly. What was she supposed to do in this situation? "Uh... well... pika pika?" she said.

The Pikachu's glare remained fixed on her, the attempt at Pokémon language obviously not working.

She sighed. "Okay, um... look. I want you on my team," she began despite knowing how stupid this could look. "Would you mind if we battled?"

Absolutely no comprehensible response. At least she received a reply, but it wasn't pleasant- the Pikachu simply growled at her, seemingly with more hatred. It was obviously something amongst the lines of ' _fuck off_ ', she guessed, but was there any harm in battling and capturing the Pokémon anyways? It  _is_ how the world worked, after all. Catch a Pokémon and become its Trainer.

Ignis didn't give it much thought. "Basil, come out!" she said and threw her Pokéball. Her starter Pokémon popped out, refreshed after having been healed by the Pokémon Center and forgotten in its Pokéball. "We're battling that Pikachu. Let's do our best, partner!"

" _Saur!_ " it cheered and prepared itself for battle. Its rear sticking up, it charged up its stubby legs.

"Tackle it, boy!" the Trainer commanded. It quickly rushed towards the yellow rodent, roaring as it braced itself for impact.

The Pikachu seemed to scowl and sped out the way, leaving the Bulbasaur to knock into the tree. It groaned in pain, the sensation on its head drowning out the laughters of the other native Pikachu above it. This Pikachu turned towards the Bulbasaur and glared at it hard.

Her Bulbasaur wasn't too unnerved by it, however. "Y-you okay?" Ignis asked. It nodded. "Okay then... um, Basil! Leech Seed!"

The Bulbasaur nodded and aimed its bulb at Pikachu's direction. It shot out seeds at the rodent, who wasn' texpecting it. Its quick reflexes took over, swatting the seeds away with its tail- but the seeds disappeared into the rodent's tail. Shocked, the Pikachu made to examine its own tail, but suddenly staggered as its vision weakened.

Then it saw- vines were sprouting from its arms! It squeaked in shock, then turned to scowl harder at its opponent. " _Pikapi!_ "

 _Wow, it sure is hateful..._ Ignis clenched her fist happily. "Basil, I think we're winning! Tackle it again!"

Her Pokémon nodded and ran at the electric rodent. Pikachu made an attempt to dodge, but with its strength being drained by the Bulbasaur's seeds, it couldn't move as fast as before. It grunted when its reptilian opponent rammed its body into it, smashing it against the tree of Pikachu.

Speaking of the audience, she looked up at the tree to see some Pikachu with worried expressions, and few with slowly forming angry faces.  _Yikes..._ going by the way reality worked, it probably wouldn't be long until they all swarm up against her, destroying the one on one battle she had proposed.

Unless Pikachu had honor. Was that possible? She'd never know.

Seeing her opponent struggling to stand on all fours, she suddenly remembered she had a Pokéball, and that it was advised to use it on weakened Pokémon. Cursing her young days of blindly throwing Pokéball on full-health Pokémon, she put down her backpack and yanked out some Pokéballs. "Alright, Basil. You can step back now." She adjusted her cap and reeled her arm in, preparing to throw the Pokéball at the downed Pikachu.

She noticed more Pikachu preparing to jump off the tree, charging its electricity.  _I can probably run for it..._ she thought. Pikachu were all about the speed, but they'd have to carefully control their electricity if she ran around the trees, especially if they didn't want to harm the environment. Or at least, she hoped they'd be be hesitant about it. Even a bit might save time.

Ignis grinned and threw her arm forward, about to release her Pokéball.

But she stopped.

All of a sudden, she didn't see Pikachu cornered at the tree, but a dog. A completely ordinary dog from her world.

"What the...?" Suddenly, after blinking her eyes, it was Pikachu there again.

Ignis frowned. She  _knew_ this otherworldly experience was going to be high, but this was odd on a whole new level. Furthermore, that dog seemed quite fami...  _hey, that was my family's old pet dog years ago!_ Ignis' frown deepened, getting the gist of what was happening now. It was most likely some stupid conscience thing trying to make her change her mind, to not capture Pikachu and let it go.  _That's definitely not going to..._

...she put her Pokéball down. Now that she was confused and stopped focusing on capturing the Pikachu, she realized what the other thing nagging her was now. It was this- the situation.

Viridian Forest was the Pikachu's home. It's where they habitat, and suddenly some humans decided they were dissatisfied and demanded the Pikachu to be captured. Ignis suddenly barged into their territory, battled them, and plans on capturing one. No matter how much she thought about it now- wasn't this completely wrong? If this was back in her world, this would trigger PETA plenty.

...she shook her head. She now understood why her dog appeared, too. This scene mimicked what had happened to her family's dog. Beaten up and bullied by some kids, stones thrown at it, weak and unable to fight back. Except this time, the Pikachu is about to be captured by some stranger too. She just couldn't go through with this, it made her feel like the villain in some cheesy Disney movie. 

In fact, wasn't there a higher priority she was supposed to focus on? She remembered Terra and Hana, both who were probably still waiting. They didn't like this hunting idea in the first place.

That's right... that announcing man. He wasn't in the original game. Ignis stared at Pikachu- she should be helping the Pikachu escape that man's wrath, not capturing it.

"...I can't do this," she finally said, to the confusion of her Bulbasaur and the other Pikachu. Calmly walking over to the weakened rat, she took out a bottle of Potion and sprayed it on the mouse. The effect was slow, but its bruises began to disappear.

It groaned weakly before widening its eyes, staring up at Ignis, who now smiled gently. Unsure what to do, the Pikachu continued looking at the girl.

"Say, Pikachu... want to help me with something?" she asked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Team IGNIS:** Bulbasaur (Lv9)  
>  **Team TERRA:** Squirtle (Lv8)  
>  **Team HANA:** Charmander (Lv7)


	5. The Rocket Prize

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ignis and the others encounter their first Team Rocket grunt.

"It's no use, there's no Pikachu appearing at all!" several voices complained. The participants of the competition were becoming weary from all their attempts of searching through Viridian Forest's tall grasses. Without care for the Pokémon that had been chased away, their patience were turning into annoyance towards the forest. "This damn forest..."

"I can't stand the itching anymore!"

"Dear lord, the bugs!"

One by one, they gathered near the entrance of the forest, muttering nothing but complaints.

Everyone had clearly given up on the impossible competition, to the dismay of the host.

"B-but everyone, don't you want to stop those rodents' crimes?" the man with the mic tried to reason. "B-besides! Remember, I have a rare Pokémon as a reward for the winner!"

One adult stepped forward. "Yeah, it's tempting. But at this rate, we're not finding any Pikachu at all!" he said. "I doubt anyone would win this thing."

Another camper raised his Pokéballs. "I caught some Caterpie and Weedle though."

"And I found a Metapod!"

"I found two Kakuna too..."

The announcer groaned. "I don't want those damn weaklings! I want those Pikachu caught, right now!"

A slight distance away from them, Hana growled while Terra placed a hand on her shoulder. "I do not like that scum's attitude..."

"C-calm down, Hana..." the brunette said. "At least, none of the Pikachu are being harmed yet..."

Suddenly, the bushes shook and all heads turned to it. Ignis popped out from it, and to everyone's surprise, two Pikachu lodged on each of her shoulders while one sat on her head. "Hey, people. What'd I miss?"

"P-Pikachu!" one person said and pointed to them. "And t-three, at that!"

"Damn, what? Lucky..." some other trainers muttered.

The announcer had a wide grin on his face. "Marvelous! Finally! Someone did their job correctly!" Sending glares at other trainers and ignoring glares from them, he walked over to Ignis. "Young girl! Thank you. You've done something that will help me with my business very much. How shall I reward you for this outstanding task?"

The ravenette smiled. "Well, I don't know... what's this super rare Pokémon that you mentioned?"

"O-oh, that?" Suddenly the announcer didn't seem so happy. His smile became obviously faked and, whilst nobody noticed this except for her, he now seemed less willing to give out rewards. His hands fumbled around his belt. "W-well, uh, of course. I got that. Wait just a few seconds..." The announcer pulled off one of the Pokéballs from his belt. "It's right here, the super rare Pokémon. Yes."

"Right. Thanks," Ignis said and grabbed the Pokéball from him. She peered hard inside the ball. As the red material of the device was slightly transparent, it was indeed possible to identify a Pokémon from looking at its container, albeit it needed time and focus. She saw a Koffing peering from the inside, a slightly shocked expression on its face most likely at how it was being given away so easily. On the other hand, that also told her that Pokémon are aware of the outside even when in the Pokéball... although she probably knew that from reading the Pokémon Special comic books already. "Huh, a Koffing. Neat."

The announcer nodded, blowing a sigh of relief. "Y-yeah. Nice. Now, um... the Pikachu, please?" he asked. "All of the three would be even better..."

"Sure." Ignis motioned one of the Pikachu to go to the announcer. The electric rodent did so, even moreso without any signs of annoyance of hesitation. It just... jumped onto the announcer's head. "Say... before I give you these two, can I ask some questions?" she started.

Annoyance instead showed on the man's face, but he didn't deny her the questions. "Alright, just hurry it up."

The girl smiled. "You're from Viridian City, right?"

"Uh... yeah. Yep."

She pointed to the direction of Viridian City, or the safety shelter from its direction. "Then... do you know Tammy?"

The announcer raised an eyebrow. "...nope. Never heard of that. Probably some random girl I'm not close with."

At this, some people seemed confused but shrugged it off.

"Heh. Just all I needed to know." This man was definitely not from Viridian City. She knew that, and now she could prove it... if the people here weren't stupid enough. "Okay, let me just tell Pikachu to be nice to you..." she said and, leaning closer for the other two Pikachu to hop onto the man's shoulders, inched close to the first Pikachu's ears. "Pikachu...  _now!_ "

To everyone's surprising, static electricity crackled around the first Pikachu on the man's head. " _Pika..._ _!_ "

"W-what!?" The man shrieked and swiped his hat off, the Pikachu jumping into the air. To Ignis' surprise, he jumped back with agile reflexes, barring his teeth with rage. "You little...!"

"Hey! What's the meaning of this?" some Trainers asked. "She's trying to cheat the man!"

"That's not fair, stop!" others said.

Hana and Terra watched with confused stares as Ignis turned to the crowd. "You idiots still don't get it?" she asked. "This man is a sham, he's not from Viridian City!"

Everyone exchanged glances and began murmuring. One decided to ask the question: "How would you know that?"

"Yeah, Iggy, even I think that's a bit hard to tell," Terra chimed in.

The ravenette rolled her eyes. "You lot from Viridian... has there ever been any case of Pokémon attacking the Poké Mart and stealing from it?"

"Well, not that I know of..." an adult Trainer said. After some thinking, he shook his head. "No, there hasn't."

"And are there any other markets here in Viridian City?" she asked.

"....no."

Ignis stared at the people. They stared back with confusion on their face. Sighing, Ignis pointed to the mysterious announcer man. "For crying out loud, he doesn't even know who Tammy is, who everyone from the village knows. His market doesn't exist, and claims the Pikachu attacked the Poké Mart- which never happened!"

"Ohhhh..." Terra voiced.

Hana smiled and reached for her sword. "Well, I guess I've got a reason to use this now." She stepped over to Ignis and pointed her sword at the man. "State your business."

The man grunted. "Pesky kids... getting in the way of our plans..."

"Oh well. Everyone get out of here!" Ignis yelled the moment she saw the man reach for more of his Pokéballs. Unsure but not about to argue, most of the event participants scrambled towards Viridian City's safety shelter. The man, meanwhile, threw his Pokéball afar. "Time to fight, I suppose."

"Get out there and fight!" the man commanded. From his Pokéballs, as Ignis had been expecting, a familiar bat and snake duo appeared.

"As I expected." The ravenette then pointed to the man, her other hand pulling out her Pokédex to gather the data despite already knowing what they were. "Basil! Leech Seed his Zubat!" From the same bush she came from, her Bulbasaur jumped out and aimed its bulb at the bat. Seeds were shot at the infamously annoying Pokémon, melding with its blue skin.

Vines grew from the spots, and Zubat began struggling with staying in the air.

However, at this moment the Ekans hissed at Basil and leaped towards it.

"Guys!" Ignis said.

Hana and Terra nodded, summoning their respective Pokémon. "Squirty! Bubble!" the brunette exclaimed.

"Emma! Use Ember!"

Their two starter Pokémon nodded and jumped between the Bulbasaur and the Ekans. They used their commanded moves and the attacks slammed into Ekans' face, combined.

"God damn those useless Pokémon!" the man yelled. He bit his nails, trying to figure out what he could do, when Ignis suddenly began running towards him. "S-stay away, brat! Zubat!" Rather than command his Pokémon, he grabbed the bat and aimed it at the girl. "Forget attacking, just bite her and drain her life!" With that, he threw his bat Pokémon at her.

The Pikachu on his head, however, jumped towards the Zubat and smacked it away with its tail. " _Pika!_ "

"Too bad, mister!" Ignis said with a grin. "Thanks Pikachu!" The rodent nodded and motioned for its fellow brethren to follow it. The other two Pikachu nodded and jumped off the man, to his dismay, and they scurried away to a safe area to watch. "It's over for you now, Team Rocket!"

"Team... what!?" Hana exclaimed.

The man looked equally surprised, before a scowl took over his expressions. "Blasted... how'd you figure!?"

Ignis shrugged. "Not that many criminal syndicates out there."  _Lucky guess, fucking yay!_ she thought. It was a wild guess as she had no idea who the man actually was, just that he wasn't in the original game. However, the fact that he had a Koffing, an Ekans and a Zubat made her think of nothing except Team Rocket. Granted, the anime knowledge she had probably never applied to the game world, but a plenty of Rocket grunts in the game had Zubat... if she remembered correctly.

"But... what...?" Hana continued.

"Now now, Hana!" Terra exclaimed. "Incoming!" As she said, Hana focused back to the screeching snake in front of her. The Ekans was about to pounce them again, all four dodging from the spot it struck its teeth at. "Squirty! Tail Whip on it!"

" _Squirtle!_ " the turtle voiced and jumped behind the snake. It rubbed its tail against the surface of the snake's skin, softening the area.

"Now, Emma! Ember again on that spot!" Hana said.

" _Char!_ " The lizard Pokémon spat out a fireball on Ekans, burning the softened part. The snake screeched in pain before falling unconscious, and soon enough the fire faded away. " _Char!_ "

The blonde cheered. "W-we did it! Good job, Emma!" She rubbed her Pokémon's head affectionately, glad they survived the battle.

Watching her friends' battles, Ignis smiled at the results. "Glad they made it," she said to herself and turned back towards the grunt. "So, what say you give up now?" she asked.

He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, sorry. I'm not going to let a bunch of kids ruin my job," he growled.

She frowned. "Both your Pokémon are defeated, and your only other one... well, you gave it to me." She threw her new Pokéball with his Koffing into the air, catching it easily as it fell. "What're you going to do now? Run?"

The Rocket grunt smirked. "Heh. What, do you really think Pokémon are the only way to fight?" he asked. "They're just tools that tricked people into becoming stupid... here's how I'll escape!" Suddenly letting out a battle cry, the grunt charged at Ignis. The cry was so sudden, Hana and Terra were stunned in their place as they watched.

"I-Ignis!"

"Miss Ignis!"

However, the man froze. Or rather, he couldn't move. Suddenly, their were vines wrapped around him. "W-what!?"

Ignis chuckled. "Good job, Basil." She motioned behind the man, and from the corner of his eyes he saw her Bulbasaur trot back to her. "Great use of your new move, Vine Whip, there."

The Grass-type happily rubbed its head against her leg affectionately. " _Bulba!_ "

"T-that's impossible... how'd that little thing get the experience to...! Zubat!" He stopped struggling against the vines and looked behind him. His previously thwarted Pokémon lied on the ground, unconscious. "You damn useless... _Grrrr!_ "

Then he heard cracking. He looked back at Ignis, who brought her fists together. "Well then... I'm glad we speak the same language, sir." She grinned as her hands tensed, curled into a fist, prepared for physical fighting.

"Uh... haha. Well. Hm. We can talk this out, you know?" the man began saying, a forced smile on his face.

The ravenette gave it some thought. "Hm. Nah, I don't think so."

"Well then."

* * *

"Sir, um... a report. A mission had been failed."

_"A failed mission... quite rare. Who was it from?"_

"The one we sent to Viridian City, sir."

_"Hmm... ah, yes, Dalton. Not important, I suppose. What was he assigned with?"_

"Uh, yeah. Him. He was going to retrieve some more electricity source for our latest device..."

_"Hm. Not a big deal, we've just recently got a big load. Dismiss him when he returns."_

"Ah...alright, sir."

* * *

The man, Dalton, lied on the ground. Unconscious, of course, with his left cheek swelling up. He seemed to be mumbling random things about pies and cakes. Ignis stood far away, with her companions. "Well, I'd say that was a job well done."

"Pretty scary, but sure," Terra said.

"Now," Ignis said and held Dalton's Pokéball in front of her. The Koffing stared from inside, slightly worried what would happen. "Wonder what I should do with this."

Her brown haired friend tilted her head. "Well... why not let it go? Better than stealing."

"True." The girl clicked the Pokéball, releasing the Koffing. it floated up and stared at the three, unsure of what to do. "...well, hey. What do you want to do, little fella?" The Koffing looked at its Trainer's unconscious body, then floated to it. It turned back to them. "Eh, suit yourself."

"It wants to stay with that jerk?" Terra asked. "After being given away that easily?"

Ignis shrugged. "Bonds are complicated, Terra. Let them be." She turned to Hana."You alright?" she asked.

The blonde stared. "...I am not so sure about that."

"What's the matter?" Terra asked. "You've been silent for some time now. Ever since that guy said Team Rocket... what is that anyways? Sounds familiar."

"Surely you jest!" Ignis said. Terra stared at her. "...sorry, always wanted to say that. Anyways, uh, they're a terrible criminal organization... surely it must've shown on TV at some point," she said.

"That's... not all," Hana interjected. The two directed their attention to her. "You see... Team Rocked is a branch of Silph Co. that focuses on space travel and achieving it. A colleague of my father's created the branch few years ago, and the company president allowed it to become official because as you can guess... space travel is something many people would love to do." She sighed. "In fact, my father's also a member of Team Rocket... but... but!" She turned to the two. "Team Rocket is not a criminal organization!"

"Uh... huh." The black haired otherworlder frowned.  _That's definitely_ not _what Team Rocket is_ , she thought. From her memories, no matter how terrible it was, she recalled Team Rocket was absolutely not a good organization and actually had nothing to do with space. Nor rockets. Somehow. "The guy definitely is a part of Team Rocket though."

"No, Team Rocket is a rather huge project and organization," Hana said. "I wouldn't be surprised if someone wanted to use its name for wrongdoings. My father would never allow such foul deeds to happen anyways," she said.

Terra looked away. "Well, that only adds to the mystery. What group does he really belong to, then?"

"Not sure," Hana said. She turned to the unconscious man, ignoring the Koffing that was now looking into the sky with its usual goofy grin. "But there's absolutely no way Team Rocket is really related to this scum."

Ignis felt something she wanted to ask, but couldn't put a finger on it. She sighed. "Well, okay. Whatever. Not really my concern, so let's continue on our way," she said. "Some of the other people probably already contacted the authorities... I hope. We can leave this guy here." Turning towards the forest's deeper depths, she smiled. "What say we head on to Pewter City?"

"Ehhh... sure," Terra said.

"I'm... fine with that, I suppose," Hana said.

Ignis smiled. "Good. Better head off then!" She skipped deeper into the forest, to which her two friends reluctantly followed, different thoughts on their minds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Team IGNIS:** Bulbasaur (Lv10)  
>  **Team TERRA:** Squirtle (Lv9)  
>  **Team HANA:** Charmander (Lv8)


	6. Pewter Museum of Scientific Reminders

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ignis and the others visit the Pewter Museum.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a reminder that the world uses Pokédollars (unavailable symbol), not actual dollars ($). Also, in case anyone actually wonders, increasing levels without any story explanation basically equates to training or "grinding" that bears no significance.

"Well, fellas." Ignis looked around the exit of the safety shelter. No more bugs in sight. "I think we're finally safe.

"Gee, Iggy," Terra muttered. "I don't know, maybe the safety shelter has something to do with that."

"Don't get sassy with me now," the ravenette replied. "How are _you_ doing, Hana?" she asked.

The blonde, following from behind, shrugged. "I am doing fine. Bugs aren't that big of a deal."

"Easy for you to say," Terra said and sent a look at the blonde's sword.

"And we finally caught our own Pokémon, too!" Hana added. "Me with my new.. uh... Weedle, if I recalled. And you, Miss Terra, with your... uh..."

"...eh."

Ignis rolled her eyes. "Caterpie," she said.

Hana nodded. "Ah, yes. Your Caterpie."

The ravenette sighed. "Terra, you got a Pokédex from your ol' man. Use it."

"Oh. Right." She took out her Pokédex and checked it. "Whoa, cool. It really  _does_ record the data of Pokémon we encounter."

"Of course it would. Your grandpa's a genius." The three continued walking on the peaceful path to their next destination: Pewter City.

Upon entering the city, they looked around. Ignis wasn't sure if she and Terra had been there before- after all, in this world things were different from the games. Terra seemed to be in awe. "Wow, this place has changed."

 _Ah. Been here too then._ Ignis cleared her throat. "Yeah, sure has." She tried to recall what Pewter City had, asides from a perverted Gym Lea... no, that was the anime. Right.  _Asides from the character with the best lines or eyes_ , she corrected herself. "Hey, maybe the museum has something new." Assuming the museum existed the last time they came, of course.

"Sure, let's go check it out again."

Inside was, just like the lab, a lot huger than she expected. Then again, the outside of those buildings were a lot huger than she would've expected too, but viewing them from reality and not from a game made her fail to notice the size of such wide places. "Whoa, it's a lot cleaner and shiny in here now!" Terra exclaimed.

"I think I detect a sweet aroma..." Hana muttered, sniffing the atmosphere.

"Doing a better job than most museums I know of," Ignis commented under her breath. "Now then, let's see what they have..."

The receptionist smiled. "That'll be $100 per adult," she said.

"Whuh... we have to pay?" the ravenette asked herself. Then she recalled the fee from the games. "Right. Okay, so... $50..."

"$100, ma'am."

She burrowed her eyebrow in confusion, recalling a fee of $50. "...right." Then, again, she recalled the $50 was for kids in the games. She was now an adult, not a kid. After all, this world's Ignis didn't leave for the adventure at ten years old. "Sorry about that."  _Man, stupid other-me._ The girl pulled out some bills and paid a total of $300 for her and her friends.

"I could've-"

"Nah, no need."

"...okay."

After the receptionist let them through, the three walked around the first floor. They took particular notice to fossils of a giant Pokémon with wings. "Huh, a dinosaur."

"Says it's an Aerodactyl," Hana noted.

"Oh, right. Aerodactyl." Ignis looked down at the label. "Yes, indeed. Aerodactyl."  _How did I forget...?_ She looked to its right. Besides the fossil, a number of dark colored stones were neatly arranged. "Huh, stones. Alright, let's see here...  _'few of the species' fossils were discovered alongside these stones'_... odd."

Terra scratched her head. "How are these people even sure the stones weren't just some random stones buried in the dirt along them?" she wondered. "Stones  _are_ pretty common below the ground. Kinda."

A different image of an Aerodactyl popped up in Ignis' head, but with stone spikes all around its body. She faintly recalled a form of Aerodactyl where those sharp stones were  _part_ of its body, even replacing the arms. "...maybe..." She remembered something from few news she saw about the sixth generation's introduced system of Mega Evolution.  _Did Aerodactyl have a Mega Evolution form?_ Not so trusting of her own memories' eligibility, she shrugged it off and decided her false memories of a Mega Aerodactyl was a good fanart idea. "Nah, whatever."

"Hey, what's this one say?" Terra asked and moved on to another display glass. "Kabutops... odd name."

"Ah. I think it looks cool." As Ignis stared on, she recalled a theory about a Generation V Pokémon she saw an image of once- there had been some sort of mechanized Bug-type Pokémon called... uh... Genesect, or something. At first glance she didn't make any connections to Kabutops, but someone did and put their two images together, labelling similar body parts and/or organs of the two, causing yet another blast of conspiracy within the Pokémon fandom. She never picked a side within the theory, but now that she was reminded of it by these real Kabutops fossil, she had to wonder.

"Sharp claws... heh." Hana chuckled at the pointy appendages of the fossilized Pokémon.

 _...sword fetish?_ Ignis wondered.  _Maybe cutting fetish... nah, no way._ Hana seemed like a normal person. Yup, that was it.

They went up the stairs, to the second floor.

"Whoa! A rocket!" Terra exclaimed, running up to another display glass.

"Space shuttle, apparently," Hana corrected as she read the label.

The brunette glared. "Same thing."

 _...is it?_ Ignis got distracted wondering the differences of those two terms as her friends looked closely at the space vehicle thing. Then she recalled yet again something from her game knowledge.  _Space... Deoxys. Huh._ Now she wondered: as the Pokémon world didn't have common sense, seeing as the games did allow ten years old kids to battle criminal organizations, would she have the chance to ride a rocket into space and battle Deoxys? In fact... wasn't that sort of a theory for some time, within the RSE games? That you could ride a rocket to space and fight Deoxys? She remembered something like that too. Or maybe it was her own delusion.

She shook her head.  _Boy, this museum trip is reminding me of home so much..._

They moved on to the last display. More stones, but this time she somewhat recognized them. "These are... Moon Stones!"

"Indeed," Terra said. "I remember wanting to look into these once... shame we didn't have any in stock back then, right?"

 _Oh, we've seen these before?_ "Uh, yeah. Yep." Again, she felt herself reminiscing her Pokémon knowledge from before she came to this world.  _I remember thinking Jigglypuff evolved by leveling before searching it up... pft._ She resisted the urge to chuckle. The girl also remembered her Nidoqueen from one of her old playthroughs.

"...you know, I don't think these are all that interesting," Hana finally said.

Terra gave her a look. "What do you mean? Look at all these science... grandpa would be fanboying over these."

The blonde shrugged. "I am not so sure, but I believe these would be a lot more captivating if they had more description."

"iggy, did you hear her?" Terra asked. "Can you believe her?"

Ignis looked at the label for the Moon Stones.

 _'A meteorite that fell on Mt. Moon. It is thought to be a Moon Stone._ _'_

"...well, she's not wrong there," the ravenette said. "I mean... even the professor would've written a bit more about these stuff."

"Ugh. Well, okay..." the brunette grumbled.

"Oh, by the way." Hana clapped her hands together. "Miss Ignis, would you perhaps be aiming for the Pokémon League?" she asked.

Now that was something that got her full attention. "Oh, that! Why, I guess I'm somewhat interested in it," she said. "being the strongest Trainer  _is_ a nice thought..." Ignis felt her childhood ambitions unleashing itself from within her deepest minds once more. She realized something from this topic: now that she was in a world where Pokémon actually existed... becoming the 'Pokémon Master' was now possible!

"For real, Iggy?" Terra asked. "It sounds like a huge bother though... you sure about it?"

The ravenette shrugged again. "Eh, why not?" she asked. "Might even help us encounter more Pokémon that other people might have."

"Well, that's a good point, but still..."

Hana smiled. "That's nice to know. Miss Ignis, may I inform you that Pewter City has a Pokémon Gym here?"

"Oh, I know about that," Ignis replied. "Brock is the Gym Leader here, right?"

"That is right. Do you plan on challenging him?" Hana asked.

"I dunno... I think I can manage, so sure."

Terra rolled her eyes. "Uh. Sure. If that's what you want..."

The three stood in silence. Ignis looked around. "...so. Is there anything else we missed here?"

Her childhood friend looked around, trying to find something. "...uh..."

Hana shook her head. "It doesn't seem so."

Ignis smiled. "Then let's head on to the gym!"

She grabbed both her friends' hands and headed towards the stairs, excitement filling her body. She finally had something to look forward to asides from returning home- becoming the Pokémon Master! _On a side note..._ _museums are a lot more interesting than I thought_ , she thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Team IGNIS:** Bulbasaur (Lv12)  
>  **Team TERRA:** Squirtle (Lv10), Caterpie (Lv5)  
>  **Team HANA:** Charmander (Lv10), Weedle (Lv4)


	7. Ignis VS Camper Liam

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ignis enters the Pewter Gym.

It was already past afternoon by the time they finished their short museum tour and decided to head to the gym. The trio entered the building and looked around in awe. "Whoa, it's a lot more amazing than I expected," Ignis commented. She always wondered how places in video games would look if seen in real life, and the contrast between the Pokémon games' gyms and a real life gym did not disappoint her at all. Instead of just a plain brown colored ground, the terrain was truly rocky and fitting for a Rock-type gym, she thought. "This is where I'll battle Brock..."

"Not so fast, lady!" an unknown voice shouted. The three turned their heads to a boy wearing a green cap. "You'll first have to face me!"

Ignis found herself smiling.  _Camper Liam!_ she chimed in her head. How she even knew the Trainer's name came from her habit of picking on random NPC Trainers' names. Important NPCs like Gym Leaders and Villainous Team Bosses didn't bother her much, but the commonness of less important Trainers' names often made her chuckle. "Of course!" she said.

Camper Liam adjusted his cap properly, a smug smile on his face. "Now don't be cocky now. The likes of you won't even be able to reach Brock's level, nor mine!"

The ravenette found herself resisting a laugh.  _Sure. Easy experience,_ she thought.

Terra and Hana, however, looked concerned. "Iggy, you sure about this?" she asked. "I mean, even with your type advantage, we only started our journey this morning."

"We may have won a few battles with wild Pokémon and Trainers, but sometimes we may lose too," Hana said. "It is not wrong to step back and train a bit more."

Ignis patted the two. "Girls, girls. It'll be fine, trust me." She gave the two a confident smile. "I  _know_ I can win this, it won't be too hard."

Leaving the three's moments undisturbed, Liam eventually nodded when no more words were exchanged. "You must be really confident in your skills. Very well then!" He ran to one side of the rough terrain. "You ready to start this?"

"Sure," the ravenette replied and walked over to her side. "Watch me win, girls!"

Nodding, her companions silently went to the sidelines to watch.

"Well then. Let me start with Geodude!" Liam threw his Pokéball onto the fields, summoning the classic small Pokémon Ignis knew. "Geodude, Tackle!"

"Don't rush it. Basil!" She threw her Pokéball as well, summoning her Bulbasaur whom she had to retract before entering the museum. "Leech Seed that stoner!"

Hana stifled a laugh. "Pft... s-stoner Geodude..." Terra, meanwhile, sighed.

Liam rolled his eyes and motioned his Geodude to dodge.

The rock Pokémon managed to dodge the seeds that Basil spat at it, but one hit one of its thin arms. "Grr..."

Vines sprouted from that spot and, Ignis noted that it was still disturbing no matter how many times she saw it, wrapped around the Geodude.

Its increased weight made its jumps' distance decrease, but the Geodude was still quite speedy. "Don't let the vines bother you! Tackle!" Nodding, the Pokémon rammed its body into the Bulbasaur, sending the four legged starter sprawling across the field.

"Basil! Tch, not what I expected," Ignis muttered. She knew not to underestimate her opponents, but she didn't think the Geodude would still move fast despite being restrained by her Bulbasaur's Leech Seeds. "Doesn't matter though, we learnt a new move recently! Vine Whip!"

Basil got up again and extended its vines towards the Geodude. It whipped the stone Pokémon, sending it flying across the field.

"Geodude! Oh, man..." Liam scratched his head. "I might be done for... but there's still a last chance!"

"Not! Again!" Ignis commanded. Basil brought its vines down upon the Geodude once more, a loud cracking noise echoing within the building. The Geodude fell near Liam, letting out a defeated growl before fainting. "Yeah! That's one down!"

"Don't get too confident now," Liam said. He retracted his Geodude into his Pokéball and grabbed another one off his belt. "Sandshrew, your turn!"

Whatever it actually was, the creature appeared from the Pokéball's red light and landed swiftly, with its claws ready to shred its opponents. " _Sand!_ "

"I think Basil's had enough fun for now..." The girl reached for her belt, but realized she didn't catch anything else yet. She frowned.  _Damn, I should've asked that Pikachu to join me..._ she shook her head and nodded to her Bulbasaur. "It's alright Basil, you can do this. Vine Whip!"

Basil's vines extended itself once more and aimed for the Sandshrew.

"Sandshrew, Scratch!" her opponent commanded. The mammalian Pokémon leaped away from Basil's vines and struck it with its claws, severing the vines.

Ignis saw her starter wince.  _It hurts without hitting Basil directly...? Oh, right. They're part of him... her... whatever gender._ She pointed at the Sandshrew. "Basil, get away from it for now! Use Leech Seed instead!"

Her Bulbasaur nodded and put some distance between it and the Sandshrew for now. It then let out a small war cry, spitting seeds from its bulb at its opponent.

As with most opponents it had faced, the Ground-type Pokémon failed to dodge few seeds and ended up with more vines holding it down. As it struggled with them, trying to slash them with its claws, the Bulbasaur readied itself. "Tackle it!" Ignis said. Basil ran at full force, ramming itself into the Sandshrew and sending it across the field.

"Sandshrew!" Liam called.

"Once more, Basil! Tackle!" The starter nodded and ran towards the Sandshrew once more.

Liam began panicking. "S-Sandshrew, quickly untangle yourself!" It was all for naught, however, as before the Pokémon even finished nodding, the reptile-plant hybrid reached it and smashed Sandshrew away into the walls of the gym. It slid down onto the ground, unconscious with the generic cartoon swirly eyes. "Aaargh, no... I lost!"

"I did it!" Ignis cheered.

"You won!" Terra exclaimed, rushing over to her friend. "Ohmygosh, ohmygosh! Iggy! You did it!" She hugged Ignis from behind, her voice shaking with excitement. "You just.... you... ohmygosh you won!"

Hana followed after, applauding the ravenette. "That was quite a match," she said. "It wasn't as impressive as those I've seen on TV, but considering how recent our journeys just started... that was pretty good, Miss Ignis."

Ignis smiled. "Of course it is! Told you girls I could do it!" she chimed, flashing a peace sign with her hands. Her Bulbasaur trotted up to her, a proud smile on its maw. "Yep, that's right! You did really great, Basil!" She petted the Grass-type's head, to which it happily cheered in its own language.

" _Saur!_ "

Suddenly, she was shaken. It was actually Terra, getting even more excited. "Ohmygosh are you going to battle the Gym Leader next!? I can't wait to see you win again!"

"Whoa, calm down there, girl." Ignis freed herself from the brunette's clutch and chuckled, petting the girl as well. "I think I'll stop and rest here for the day. I'm a bit worried about this fella's vines," she said and pointed to her Bulbasaur, who raised its vines for her. "I'm not sure how plant body works, but it definitely did not seem so painless when his Sandshrew slashed it off."

"Ouch... huh."

Meanwhile, Camper Liam sighed and walked up to his victorious opponent. "Oh well, I guess that's my loss. You won and did well, um... Miss Iggy?"

The ravenette groaned. "This is why I tell you not to call me that," she whispered to her childhood friend and turned back to the Rock-type user. "I-it's Ignis, haha."

"Miss Ignis, huh?" Liam rubbed his chin. "That sounds... oh, that's right! I think Brock had been expecting you!" he said.

"He has?" Hana said. "Do the two of you perhaps know each other, Miss Ignis?"

The ravenette stared. "Uh..."  _Oh God, other-me! Come back and help!_ She wondered as well. The other Ignis had come to this city before, so maybe she did...? "Y-yeah, I guess. Somewhat decent friends, I suppose."

Terra jumped up and down. "Say, say! Did Brock mention me too, did he?" she asked Liam. "I bet the guy just misses me, haha!"

Liam looked away.

She frowned. "...that asshole."

"Well, anyways." Ignis extended her hand to her opponent. "That was a good match, wouldn't you say?"

Liam smiled. "Yeah, it was. I'm Liam," he finally introduced and shook her hand. "Nice to meet you, Miss Ignis."

"Same to you... same to you."

She turned around. "Alright, gang. I think I'll go to the Pokémon Center for now." The girl led her two friends out the gym.

"You gonna find a room there?" Terra asked.

 _They let you rest there too?_ She scratched her chin. "I.. uh, suppose so."  _Didn't know they were inns too._ "Unless, uh, you want to camp." Ignis mentally erased her actual plan as she asked it.

"Nah, I'm good," Terra said. "Camping is terrible."

Hana stared. "I have camped many times before," she said. Terra stared back, before rolling her eyes.

"Pokémon Center it is then." They headed towards Pewter City's Pokémon Center and walked inside. Ignis looked around once more- no matter how many times she entered a building in this world, it just amazes her how great every place looks compared to seeing it as a game. "Whoa."

"Welcome to the Pokémon Center," a familiar woman stated. "Would you require healing?"

"Nurse Joy!" Ignis exclaimed.

The pink haired nurse nodded. "That is right. I am everyone's favorite nurse, Nurse Joy! ...at your service, teehee." She winked playfully, then went back to a professional posture. "Anyways, do you require healing for your Pokémon?" she asked once more.

"Uh, yeah. My Bulbasaur, Basil, might need to have his vines checked," Ignis replied and picked her starter Pokémon up.

" _Saur!_ " Basil chimed, waving its cut vines to the nurse.

"Oh, my. A light injury. I'm afraid I cannot do anything about that."

"W-what!?" all three girls exclaimed.

Then Nurse Joy chuckled. "Ooooor so I jest. I'm just having a little bit of fun with you," she said, sending another wink to the ravenette. "I'll handle your Pokémon safely and make sure they are fine shortly. Hold on a moment." The iconic nurse gently took the Bulbasaur from Ignis and walked behind the counter. She pulled and attached some wires to the Grass-type and petted its head affectionately. Then, turning back to the group, she smiled. "Would you also like to stay for the night?"

"Uh, yeah... I mean, yes, we would," Ignis said. "How much for a night?"

Terra frowned. "You forgot?" she asked. "Remember when we came and stayed two nights once with grandpa? It's $400."

Nurse Joy chuckled. "Silly, no. It's $100 for adults and $50 for anyone younger than eighteen." She raised a finger to her chin. "At that time you came together with Professor Oak and stayed two nights, so that's $200 per night, thus $400." She then observed the three girls. "You three are all eighteen now, I assume, so... one night comes to $300."

 _Same as the museum then..._ Ignis pulled out $100 from her wallet. The others did the same before she could pull out anymore to pay for them. "...mmreh. Whatever..."

The three handed the bills to Nurse Joy. She smiled and nodded. "Thank you, and please wait just a few minutes. We'll give you the room key and your Bulbasaur soon."

"Alright, thanks." They sat down at some nearby chairs for a while, talking about random things like the coming battle with the Gym Leader tomorrow or their journey so far and such common topics. Eventually Nurse Joy went to them, with Ignis' Bulbasaur in her hands. "Ooh, done already? Quite fast."

"Indeed, here is your Bulbasaur," the nurse said. Basil happily hopped off into Ignis' arms. Nurse Joy then pulled some keys from a pouch in her nurse outfit. "Here is the key for your room. The number's on it. Take care now," she said and waved goodbye to they.

"We will," the ravenette reasured and walked towards a corner with her friends. She saw a hallway of rooms around the corner, stretching way longer than she thought the Pokémon Center could contain. "Alright then... we're staying here for tonight, I suppose."

"Man, I can't wait to jump on their beds again!" Terra squealed. "Last time we came here long ago, we had so much fun with pillow fights and bouncing and everything!"

 _Pillow fights... wow_ , Ignis thought. She had neer actually done pillow fights before, as she wasn't too social to ever go to sleepovers or invite anyone to her home.  _I really need to try that one day._

"It was too bad grandpa finished his shower so fast that he told us to stop making a ruckus," the brunette said. "Haha, good times."

"Y-yeah, real fun," Ignis said.

Hana tilted her head. "Did the beds not collapse under your weights combined?" she asked.

"W-we're not that heavy!" Terra said. In a hurry to steer the topic away from weight, she grabbed Ignis' hands. "A-anyways, Iggy! What's the room number?"

"Hmm... I think we just passed it." The ravenette stopped walking and, taking two small steps backwards, she turned left. "This one."

"Ooh, sweet!" Her childhood friend became even more excited. "I can't wait!"

Ignis rolled her eyes. She slid her key into the keyhole and twisted it. "There, it's-"

"Nostalgic bounce time!" With speed so fast that Ignis was reminded of Usain Bolt comparison memes, Terra rushed into the room and jumped towards the bed. She immediately bounced up high, somersaulting once or perhaps even twice before she fell again. "Ahaha! Whoooo!"

"C-careful now..." Ignis whispered. She worried her friend might knock her head on the bed's frame.

Hana was also concerned. "Do you think this might be a bother to other hotel tenants...?"

Terra stopped bouncing and stared. "Hmm.. I dunno. I mean if there were rooms under ours then sure...?" She shrugged. "But I mean, they're rooms besides ours, not under... oh well, I guess I'll stop."

"Good, because I'm tired and planning on taking a nap," Ignis said.

"Sleeping already? That's a crime in the adult world!" the brunette replied, shocked.

Ignis rolled her eyes. "You go shower first, silly. I'll shower later, maybe midnight, eh."

Hana smiled. "That is a good idea. I'll go after you, Miss Terra."

"Okay," Terra replied. She got off the bed and skipped into the bathroom.

"Now that that's done with..." Ignis sighed and lied down on the bed. "Hm. Really is comfortable... Hana, would you mind waking me up maybe in a few hours?" she asked. "If, uh, you're not asleep yet?" she requested.

The blonde nodded. "Very well then. I shall stay awake until I find it fit to wake you up."

"Thanks. Today's just been really tiring," the ravenette said with a sigh. "Started adventuring, met you, fought Team Ro... uh, some evil guy, and challenged Liam from the gym..." Ignis listed off, then chuckled. "I can tell this is going to be quite an adventure." Yawning, stretched her limbs and put her hands together on her stomach. "Early nighties, Hana."

"Early good night to you too," Hana replied.

With that, Ignis' eyes closed and she drowned in the silence that followed, waiting for fatigue to carry her away to the land of dreams.

* * *

A shadow flew across the mountains, looking down upon all the inferior Pokémon and humans. It stopped by Pewter City, spotting a yellow figure resting atop the Pokémon Center. It licked its beak and, with a silent cry to itself, darted towards the figure. It thought it would successfully grab a perfect snack for its short flight, but suddenly-

" _Chuuuuu!_ " A cry rang from the figure and suddenly, electricity coursed through the assailant's body.

" _Krrawwww!_ " the shadow cried, its feathers turning black. It fell unconscious in mid-air, falling down onto the grass.

A nearby elderly citizen jumped back in surprise. "W-whoa! What in the blazes...?" The man stepped a bit closer to look. "I-is that a... Fearow!? Dear lords, that poor thing." He then looked into the sky, extremely confused. "But... there doesn't seem to be a storm brewing...?"

The Pikachu on the Pokémon Center's roof, hidden from sight, smirked. It went back to relaxing by itself, preparing to get some rest so that it can resume its agenda the next day. It thought once more about something that confused it, before deciding it had rest to catch.

Why, yes. The Pikachu had important plans, after all.

Great plans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Team IGNIS:** Bulbasaur (Lv13)  
>  **Team TERRA:** Squirtle (Lv10), Caterpie (Lv5)  
>  **Team HANA:** Charmander (Lv10), Weedle (Lv4)


	8. An Unfortunate Time Gap

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ignis discusses some discoveries with the weird white titans.

_"Ahaha. Look who's back here again?"_

Ignis stared into an endless ceiling of whiteness. She blinked once or twice, before pushing herself up and looking around.

It had been only a day, but the odd sight of seven giant white titans standing behind giant white tables still unsettled her, somewhat. That was, of course, natural. After all, nobody would feel at ease at such a sight as the one before her eyes.

"...you guys again?" she said.

 _"Yep, us again,"_ the titan with the roman numeral of  **III** replied.

 _"You don't seem so enthusiastic,"_   **IV** said.

Ignis raised an eyebrow. "Well, uh... I mean, it's not that big of a deal..."

 _"True,"_   **II** and  **VI** said, whilst most of the other titans nodded.

The one she remembered as the sane one of the group,  **V** , simply cleared his throat to get their attention. _"Anyways. Welcome back to our realm, girl."_

"Thanks. The name's Ignis now."

 _"Right. I would like to ask,"_   **V** began,  _"what have you discovered so far during your... current journey?"_

The ravenette sighed. "Well, I'm not sure. It's only been a day," she said. "There's a lot of things that is really out of place."

 **I** scratched his head.  _"Out of place? How so?"_

Ignis wasn't sure how to reply to that, but another titan spoke.  _"Oh, I do recall you saying in your world, the Pokémon world was fictional,"_   **VII** noted.

 _"Hey, yeah! Then that means the prophecy isn't that big of a deal- if she follows what she remembers from the game, saving Kanto would be hella easy!"_   **III** said.

The other energetic titans stared and became awed by the idea.

 _"I'm afraid that isn't the case,"_   **V** interrupted, to the others' chagrin.  _"If things are, as Miss Ignis put it,_ out of place _... that means something's not aligning with her knowledge of our world's events."_

Ignis nodded. "Yeah, I'll explain things." It was a predicament that had occurred to her as she slowly drifted off amidst her nighttime nap, something she didn't quite realize until she looked back on the day's events. "Earlier today, when my friends and I were venturing through Viridian Forest, there was a rather... nasty event."

 _"Ah, yes. The Pikachu hunt hosted by Team Rocket, am I right?"_   **V** asked. When Ignis gave him an odd look, he didn't seem to be fazed at all.  _"We have been monitoring your progress as well as looking into the mysteries around your body switch,"_ he simply said.

"Right. Anyways... in the original game, that grunt shouldn't have been there at all," Ignis continued. "Of course, I did consider the fact that in a game, they were not programmed to be there, and in this real life they came to the forest eventually. Another thing bothered me, though."

 **II** nodded.  _"Do tell us."_

Ignis narrowed her eyes. "While we did resolve that matter quickly, before I finished him off, that man stopped believing in his Pokémon."

 _"Don't see nothin' wrong so far,"_   **VII** said.

 _"Though I guess it_ does _sound ethically wrong..."_   **IV** added.

"No, what's odd to me is that he attempted to get into a physical fight with us," Ignis said. "From what I know, Pokémon battling is basically what decides everything in this world- or at least, it should be." She turned to  **III** , who seemed as if he was about to say something. "And the act of using a Pokémon to harm a person instead also existed in some of the games, but I have never seen any physical fights between Trainers so far."  _Nor do I remember any, that is,_ she mentally added.

 _"...well, okay..."_   **I** said.  _"But I still don't get the problem."_

The girl nodded. "Right. This is just me assuming things, but I might not actually be able to use my knowledge of the games to help with... well, the prophecy."

 _"A minor change isn't that effective towards the prophecy, I'm afraid,"_   **V** said. He shook his head, but Ignis wasn't done.

"That's not the only thing. A major problem is that the main character, or  _me_ as of now, is supposed to start their journey by the age of ten." The others stared at her, seemingly processing this. "The adventuring, the defeating a dangerous criminal organization, the meeting Legendary Pokémon... it's all supposed to be done by a ten year old." Ignis then pointed to her own body...  _hey!_ "Wait, I'm naked again?"

 _"Haha, yeah. Guess you're a nudist, huh?"_   **I** joked. He promptly shut up when Ignis sent him a glare.

"A-anyways... yeah. I've found out that right now, I'm eighteen years old. That's a time skip of eight years between now and when my journey was supposed to start." She clutched her fists to her chest. "I think that... somehow, during the eight years of inactivity that the real Ignis chose to help with Professor Oak's research instead of adventuring, the world has changed a lot."

 _"...ohhh..."_  several titans voiced together. She smiled, glad that they understood what she was getting at- the only thing she can follow based on her gameplay was collecting the eight badges and aiming for the Pokémon League. Fighting Team Rocket was necessary and achievable as well, but with the mindset of physically battling the Trainers, it's not a stretch to be able to assume that within the years of her inactivity, Team Rocket has expanded their business and actually became a potential threat.

"Whether I can save Kanto... no, that might be putting it lightly," Ignis said. Her expressions darkened, and the titans realized that as Ignis should know the threat of Team Rocket based on her knowledge of the world as a fictional media, Team Rocket does indeed have more than enough capability to damage not just the Kanto region but possibly the entire world. "It's possible that this entire Pokémon world would need saving."

 _"...impressive,"_   **V** finally commented. The other titans turned their heads to him, and Ignis smiled as she awaited more input from him.  _"Rather, to say I am just impressed would be an understatement. Young girl, did you really put that much thought into your predicament only based on such trivial factors?"_ he asked.

Ignis nodded. "It's for an important cause after all."  _I don't want to get shot by Team Rocket grunts any time soon,_ she thought.  _I can only pray they stick to physical fights..._

 **VI** scratched his head. _"S-still... isn't that kind of stretching it though?"_ he asked. _"I think you might be overthinking it..."_

 **IV** shook his head, however. _"No, now that she puts it like that... I think it's actually possible,"_ he said. _"I'm not sure how easy everything actually was from her point of view as the gamer, but we who have kept watch over the region the entire time surely know how dangerous villains can become."_

Putting his hands together,  **I** sighed. _"Yeah, nobody'd want to forget the Kalos war a damn lot of years ago..."_

Ignis frowned. "The Kalos war...?" The name rang some bells inside her. She frantically searched inside her memories within a short time span, and her eyes widened. "Wait...  _that_ Kalos war!?"

Although she had stopped playing the series around Black 2 and White 2, she still had passion for the series and kept up with information up until the beginning of the seventh generation. She knew a lot of details from the sixth generation, Kalos and its Hoenn remake, but her interest had already slowly faded from the Pokémon series, thus there wasn't much she could actually remember about their detailed lores.

From what she remembered from spoilers of the X and Y games, a mysterious old man named AZ was a king of an old country. He seemed to have used Pokémon life force as an energy to fuel some huge weapon she couldn't recall well, and it ended the war. Some sort of tragedy happened involving the man's Pokémon leaving him out of disgust, at the machine using Pokémon life force as its energy source.

 _"Oh? You know of it as well?"_   **II** asked.

Ignis nodded, albeit unsure. "Well, yeah. I guess, I know a bit..."  _That war was like... 3000 years ago, wasn't it?_ She then formed an unrelated question in her head- how old were these titans around? As she knew nothing about these titans, she was sure they were most likely some sort of new Pokémon currently in development or something related to a God lore. Perhaps these are related to Arceus. And if they knew of the war that was long ago... "Say, how old are you fellas?" she asked.

The titans exchanged glances.

 _"Well, I'm not sure how to answer that,"_   **I** said.

 _"I feel quite old, so we must be well over fifty years at least, right...?"_   **III** said.

 _"No, age is just a number. It shouldn't really matter..."_   **IV** said.

 _"All I know is that I've been hungry for what feels like decades,"_   **VI** said.

Ignis scratched her head. They didn't really answered her at all. However,  **II** cleared his throat. She turned to the second giant.

 **II** shrugged his shoulder.  _"Honestly, I am not sure we can provide an answer to that. Truth is... well..."_

 _"Thing is, girly,"_   **VII** interrupted,  _"we were all created by our mistress just a few years ago,"_ he said.  _"I'd say around two years, perhaps."_

"I see..." She put a finger to her chin, in deep thought.  _Born two years ago... huh._  She didn't remember any backstories of anything being created within the Pokémon world. Except that subquest within HeartGold and SoulSilver where you needed an Arceus to create a Dialga, Palkia or Giratina... She looked at the titans again.  _These are_ seven _titans, not three... hm._ There was nothing she could think of right now. Figuring she had plenty of chances to figure more things out later, she smiled. "Well, whatever. I think that's all I have to report here."

 _"Very well. As for us,"_   **V** said,  _"we still hold no understanding of your predicament so far. We can only assume for now that there is a sort of link between our world's Ignis and your world's... you."_

"Weird. Wonder why that would be," Ignis said. "I guess I can't expect much right now. That's all for tonight then, I assume?"

The titans all nodded.  _"I don't think you'd like the idea of never getting to dream,"_   **IV** said.

 _"Yeah, you deserve a normal sleeping routine at the very least, since you're helping us out a lot with the prophecy,"_   **VI** added.

The girl nodded. "Right. I'll be going now... however it works."

The titan with the  **V** numeral clasped his hands together.  _"I shall handle that. Good luck on your battles tomorrow, girl... no, Ignis."_

With that, like her first encounter with the titans' end, white light surrounded her. Within a flash, she faded away from the odd dimension.

* * *

Hana's legs swayed in a constant rhythm as she sat on a porch outside the Pokémon Center. She took a small bite into a loaf of bread she received from Nurse Joy, who had told her that other meals would cost but bread would always be provided free of charge to their tenants. The blonde had wanted to wake her new companions up, but ultimately she decided not to.  _After all..._ she shook her head.

It was probably better not to dwell on those two's questionable relationship.

Speaking of which, at that moment those two walked out the inn-slash-healing-facility. "Oh, Hana. So you were here," Ignis said.

"Y-yeah. I was just, uh... excited for today's to-come events, that's right!" she said. Then, before the others could reply, she lowered her head towards Ignis. "Anyways. I-I'm sorry, Miss Ignis. I forgot to wake you up as I promised last night."

"Huh? Oh, uh, right. That." Ignis laughed nervously, scratching her head. "W-well, it's okay, Hana. In the end-"

"Good thing Miss Terra woke you up instead, yes?" the blonde blurted out. Met with wide-eyed stares from her companions, she blinked. "Well, I mean, Miss Ignis' attire is much cleaner now. I am sure you managed to shower, right?"

Ignis sighed in relief. "O-oh, yeah. Yeah, I did."  _Not wrong there..._ she thought. Right after her second meeting with the white titans, she was woken up by Terra. The brunette's face had been really close to hers, and although her friend laughed it off as just observing how cute her sleeping face was, Ignis felt rather embarrassed by it.

 _Good thing this isn't an anime where she tries to kiss me in my sleep..._ the ravenette thought..  _After all, that's like a form of assault... I think._

She shook her head. "Alright then. Are we all refreshed now?"

Terra nodded. "Yeppies. I think so."

"I feel as refreshed as every new day," Hana said.

Ignis smiled. "Great. I guess I'll head to the real battlefield now..."

She turned and pointed towards the Pewter City Gym.

"Onwards to Gym Leader Brock!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Team IGNIS:** Bulbasaur (Lv13)  
>  **Team TERRA:** Squirtle (Lv10), Caterpie (Lv5)  
>  **Team HANA:** Charmander (Lv10), Weedle (Lv4)


	9. Brock-Solid Battle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ignis battles Brock, the man with the best lines.

"Alright, kid! Take me to Brock!" Ignis said with a faked voice of haughtiness.

The boy sighed. "I'm not a kid..." he whispered, but walked towards the end of the room's walls. He put his hands on the wall, and suddenly a passage was pushed open, to the amazement of the others.

"Whoa... secret passages," Terra whispered. "My childhood memories are coming back to me... it's like a secret base for spies!"

Ignis gulped. "I don't remember no extra rooms in the games..." she said to herself.

Hana, meanwhile, didn't seem fazed by it. Rather, she seemed to be used to it.

 _Of course, she's a rich girl from a rich company..._ Ignis thought. No wonder the blonde wasn't in awe like she and Terra were.

Liam seemed to chuckle, most likely understanding how the two excited girls were. "Well technically, you girls would still be battling back there. This is just a meeting room Mister Brock uses to discus things with others. I could just call him for-"

"Nah, we need to see this," Terra immediately said. Ignis nodded, out of pure curiosity.

The boy sighed and walked through the dark passage.

They soon reached another door, this time a normal door, and Liam politely knocked twice. "Mister Brock?"

"Liam?" a voice from inside asked. "What is it?"

"Challengers are expecting you..."

She heard a chair being pushed, and someone walking towards the door. "Is it Oak's girl and Ignis?" the voice asked. Ignis couldn't help but smile, reminded that the Gym Leader knew her and Terra.

Liam nodded. "Y-yeah. The ones you were expecting... M-Miss Ignis beat me fair and square."

"Heh, as expected." The voice stopped in front of the door. Suddenly, another voice spoke within the closed room.

"Professor Oak's granddaughter?" a female voice asked.

A third voice, a different male voice than the first, sighed. "No, it's her friend. I think."

Ignis raised an eyebrow. She only recalled there being one Trainer within Brock's gym, and that was Liam if you excluded the Gym Leader himself. Who was the other two...?

Finally, a click came from the door's handle- unlocking it, she assumed. The door swung open, and Brock stood in front of the group. "Hey, Ignis! Long time no see!"

Ignis faked a smile. "Y-yeah, hello! Glad to see you again." As she greeted, she tried to peer into the room to see who the others were, but then a certain brunette pushed her away. "Whuh..."

"Hey! What about me?" Terra asked, pouting. "You can't seriously have forgotten me, did you!?"

Brock stared. "..." He sheepishly looked away.

The brunette only got more irritated. "You ass!"

"Haha, wait, calm down!" Brock laughed as the girl pelted his arms with weak punches. "I was just kidding around, of course I remember you! Long time no see to you too, Terra!"

Terra immediately stopped and smiled. "You remembered me!" She proceeded to hop around happily, fangirling to Ignis about her not being a forgettable person.

Meanwhile, Brock stared at Hana. "Oh? And who might this be?" he asked.

Hana bowed. "Greetings, sir. My name is Hana Kanazawa, daughter of a high-ranking Silph Co. worker, and an aspiring Pokéball manufacturer." She offered a hand, to which Brock shook. "It is an honor to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too." He looked to his assistant Camper Liam. "Are these two also here to challenge our gym?" he asked, referring to Terra and Hana.

The boy shook his head. "Only Miss Ignis has battled so far."

"I see." Brock smiled and gestured them to move back. "Let's get this over with then, Ignis. Make your way back to the stage, I'll prepare the Pokémon to use on you."

"Decide?" Ignis asked. "Don't you have only two Pokémon?"

The Rock-type Gym Leader laughed. "Of course not. I wouldn't be a Gym Leader if two Pokémon were all I had." He walked back inside the room and opened a drawer that apparently had been right besides the door. "We carefully choose which Pokémon to use based on the progress a Trainer has made. If you had, say, five gyms, I'd be using about four to five, or maybe even six Pokémon," he said.

"I see..." Ignis then recalled a scene from the special Pokémon Origins that she had watched. When Red had battled Brock, the dude really did choose two Pokémon based on Red's experience, in which the latter was a beginner Trainer. She looked back again to Brock, wondering what Pokémon he had chosen, but at that moment as Brock was no longer standing in front of the doorway, she saw a girl sitting in Brock's meeting room.

She was an extremely familiar girl with a large pink ribbon behind her head, with two curled twin tails flowing down to her waist. She wore what almost seemed like a mix of a business suit and a student uniform, and dark pink stockings. Her red eyes shone with... well, boredom as of now, she supposed. This girl was none other than the Rock-type Gym Leader from Hoenn...

"R-Roxanne!?" Ignis sputtered. The girl stared at her, eyes now rather interested than bored. "I-I mean, uh, hello! Hi. Um. Yeah. Hi."

Roxanne stared as the ravenette tried to seem polite. "Huh. You know who I am? Golly, my fame must have spread more than I expected."

Ignis shoook her head. "O-of course! I-it's you after all, who wouldn't... ahaha..." Her face turned a dark shade of red. During the third generation of Pokémon, when she had her copy of Pokémon Emerald, she had developed a huge crush on Roxanne. There wasn't particularly any reason behind it- she had just thought that the girl looked pretty. She  _did_ see the remake artwork for OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire eventually, but by then her attachment to the Gym Leader and the series itself weren't as big as before.

But now that she was in the real Pokémon world and, for completely unknown reasons, meeting the real Roxanne in her FireRed runthrough...! She tried to calm herself by breathing in and out. Roxanne seemed somewhat amused.

"You're Ignis, right?" the girl asked as she stood up and skipped to the stunned otherworlder.

Ignis nodded quickly. "U-uh, yes! Yes I am. That's me." She supposed that even after losing interest in the series and character for so long, she still really admired this Hoenn Gym Leader. "I'm, uh, Ignis from P-Pallet Town."

"Pallet Town, huh? I should pay a visit sometimes..." Roxanne said.

The other male in the room, sitting on the table, laughed. "True. I'd certainly love to see Professor Oak in real life myself!" he said. Ignis turned to look at this unknown male stranger- cordovan hair and eyes, wearing a mining hat and uniform, and wore simple glasses. This wasn't any unknown face either, now that she thought about it... or rather, this was the Sinnoh Rock-type Gym Leader! "Hey there. I'm-"

"R-Roark!" the girl blurted in surprise.

Roark was a bit surprised, to say. "You know me? Wow. I'm not even Gym Leader yet... probably know me as that guy's son, haha."

 _Wait... not a Gym Leader yet?_ Ignis stared. Then she turned to Roxanne. "...are you a Gym Leader yet?"

The girl chuckled, but shook her head. "Not yet, I'm afraid. But people have been telling me I should try for the position," she said. "As of now, however, I'm just your favorite Rock-type expert."

Ignis frowned. This wasn't right at all- these two are supposed to be well-known Gym Leaders of their respective regions... or at least, she assumed they should be. Why were they not Gym Leaders? Maybe they retired?  _...no, they said_ yet _. That means the other games simply haven't happened yet._ She shook her head. "A-ah, right. The battle. Brock, I'll go wait outside."

"Yeah, alright." Brock stuffed two Pokéball on his belt. He grabbed a third one, wondering whether he should use it or not. "Hmm..."

As Ignis left, Roxanne smiled. "If you don't mind, I'll watch your match too."

The Kanto Leader raised an eyebrow. "You sure about that?"

The girl laughed. "Figured it might get interesting. You usually don't consider using a third Pokémon for beginners, after all."

"Huh. Sharp." But Brock shrugged and put the third Pokéball back. "Well, I was just wondering."

Roark rolled his eyes and rested his head on the table, yawning. "Count me out... I'll jut wait here. Wake me up when, uh, you're done."

The two Rock-type Gym Leaders stared at him before shrugging.

* * *

"Iggy!" Terra said. "What took you so long?"

"Eh, nothing big," the girl replied. She promptly thought about mentioning Roxanne and Roark's presence, but decided not to in case she wasn't suppose to even know them. "We're going to start soon. You two watching?"

Both Hana and Terra nodded. "We aren't aiming for badge collection yet, I'm afraid," the blonde informed.

"Right." Ignis went to stand on one side of the stadium, and as Brock arrived with Roxanne, the former stood on the opposite side while the latter went to watch from the bench along with Liam and the other girls. "I'm going to finish this and get that badge!"

"Confident of yourself, huh?" Brock grinned. "That's good enough. Call your first Pokémon!"

Ignis snickered. "Sad story is, I only have one. That's enough to beat you though!" She threw her Pokéball, releasing her Bulbasaur from its confinement. "Basil! Let's do this!"

Brock nodded and threw his first Pokéball. "Since you've just started, I'll be using this!" A Geodude appeared within a flash of red light, and roared at its opponent. "Ladies first?"

"Doesn't really matter," Ignis replied. "Basil! Vine Whip!"

"Dodge it and use Defense Curl!" Brock commanded.

Her Bulbasaur's vines extended towards the Rock-type, who hopped back, narrowly avoiding the long appendages. It then curled its body up into a ball, and for a moment Ignis saw an invisible wave of energy surround it in an orb.  _So that's Defense Curl..._

"Vine Whip again!" she said. Her Bulbasaur nodded and maneuvered its vines towards the defending Pokémon.

Brock smiled. "Dodge again, and use Rollout!"

The Geodude nodded and began rolling itself, lunging towards Basil. Its green vines were, to Ignis' surprise, ripped to shreds upon contact. Her Bulbasaur barely managed to dodge the rolling Pokémon. "What the- shit, that's fast and strong!" Ignis exclaimed.

Her opponent nodded. "Ignis, let me teach you something you might not know," he began as his Geodude reached a wall. "When a Pokémon uses Rollout, they keep on spinning until they get stopped. However... did you know that using Defense Curl can help strengthen the attack power?"

 _Seriously?_ Like hell she'd know that, she didn't ever bother much with metagames and movesets and all that crap. The Geodude spun around and rolled towards Basil again. "D-dah, uh, keep dodging it for now!"

Basil jumped out of the Geodude's path again, but this time it was closer to being hit than before. It gulped- getting smacked by something rolling that fast wasn't a pleasant thought.

"Is that all you have to show?" Brock asked.

Ignis rolled her eyes. "Drats. What can I do... hm." She began thinking in her mind how to stop a rolling object. Having her Bulbasaur stop it by facing it would be suicide, she thought. The only other way she ever knew how to stop a rolling object was... oh. She turned to her Bulbasaur. "Basil! Launch it into the air with your vines!" she said.

The Bulbasaur looked at her, confused.

"Your vines! Um. Like. A slide! I mean, a reverse slide!"

It looked less confused now, but still didn't quite get the point of it. However, trusting its Trainer, Basil grew new vines and arranged them into a slide. It aimed the bottom of the slide, the tip of its vines, towards the incoming Geodude.

Suddenly, to everyone's surprise, the Geodude rolled into the air. Everyone looked up as it uncurled itself to look around, confused at its predicament. "What the-"

"Secure it and use Vine Whip!" Ignis yelled. Realizing what it had done, her Bulbasaur smirked and quickly wrapped one of its vines around the Geodude, securing it in place. The other vine menacingly floated towards the Geodude. The Rock-type gulped as it knew it could do nothing more now. Within a few seconds of several Vine Whips, Basil let the Geodude down on the floor, unconscious. "Yes! Great job, Basil!"

Brock's jaw dropped. "That's just... wow." He recalled his Pokémon and grabbed a second Pokéball. "Like, wow, Ignis. I didn't think you'd... that was pretty sadistic at the end though."

Ignis laughed sheepishly, then looked at her friends watching the match. She flashed them a thumbs up, before noticing Roxanne and blushing slightly.  _I wonder if that was a good battle I did..._

"Yes! She did it!" Terra exclaimed. She turned to Hana and shook her shoulders. "Iggy did it! I knew she could do it!"

The blonde calmed the brunette down, smiling hopelessly. "Do not forget, Miss Terra, that Mister Brock most likely has more Pokémon."

Terra stared, before looking away. "I... I knew that!" She looked back at Ignis, still overjoyed. "I'm just... glad, I suppose."

Roxanne, who sat next to Hana, smiled. "You two have faith in that girl, don't you?" she asked. They nodded in response, to which she laughed. "We'll see how she fares against the next one, then."

"Bring it on!" Terra exclaimed. She stood up and cupped her hands around her mouth. "Iggy! Beat that dummy!"

"D-dummy?" Brock muttered. "Geez. Oh well, here goes my second Pokémon!" He threw the second Pokéball and summoned a giant reptilian Pokémon whose body consisted of only giant stones. "Onix! Let's go!"

It roared at Ignis' Bulbasaur, who could only whimper slightly at the huge size difference.

"Don't worry, Basil. Bigger target, easier time!" Ignis said. "Leech Seed!"

"Not so fast! Onix, Bind!"

As her Bulbasaur spat some seeds towards the giant snake Pokémon, it ignored the seeds and grabbed the Bulbasaur with its tail, coiling around it. It ignored the vines sprouting from the energy-draining seeds, looking down on the Bulbasaur with a grin.

Brock smirked. "Both Leech Seed and Bind will slowly damage each other. Who will win first?" he wondered.

Ignis grinned. "Leech Seed wasn't the only thing in there!" she said.

Confused, the Rock-type Gym Leader looked at his Onix- it seemed to be visibly in pain.  _That's odd_ , he thought.  _It didn't mind the Leech Seed at first...!_ He looked again- barely noticeable purple tints were spreading across Onix's body. "That's...! Poison Powder!?"

"Yep! Basil had it infused with its Leech Seed when it shot at your Onix!" Ignis said.

"But that's... you didn't even command it to!" Brock exclaimed.

The ravenette laughed. "By now, Basil knows what I'm aiming for in a battle," she said. "We both understand each other- try to put our opponents in as much of a disadvantage as we can the first chance we get!"

"That's..." Brock looked back at Onix. Its health was most likely depleting rapidly, but he grinned. "Whatever! I can still end this right away in one go!" He raised his hand. "Throw him up and use Rock Thr-"

"Vine Whip!" Ignis interrupted. Brock flinched and watched as somehow, long vines wrapped around his Pokémon and began pummeling the Rock-type.

"O-Onix!" He gritted his teeth. "How...?"

Ignis smiled. "Silly. Even if you used Bind on Basil, you can't completely wrap everything up. Small openings are enough for Basil's vines to slip through," she said.

"Seriously...?" Brock whispered.

At this point, most Trainers he had faced would be panicking and in despair and can't properly command their Pokémon around. Only a few were able to brave through the ordeal or even dodge being coiled up like he did. To attack while being restrained though... he never had such a reckless opponent before.

"You're something, alright..." he finally said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Team IGNIS:** Bulbasaur (Lv15)  
>  **Team TERRA:** Squirtle (Lv10), Caterpie (Lv5)  
>  **Team HANA:** Charmander (Lv10), Weedle (Lv4)


	10. Photography is Actually Somewhat Fun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ignis and the others continue their journey.

"A Boulder Badge... sweet..." Ignis muttered. She examined the badge carefully, holding it slightly above her head.

Brock nodded. "That's right. I should also give you a copy of this too," he said and pulled out a familiar CD.

"TM... Technical Machine," the girl muttered. It was one of the useless knowledge she had memorized somehow from a research session of boredom. If she recalled correctly, the more important version- HM- stood for ' _Hidden Machine_ '. She wasn't sure why they were called that, but it didn't really matter anyways.

"That's right. This is TM39; it contains Rock Tomb," Brock explained. "Although I'm positive your Bulbasaur can't learn this, you might find or capture a Pokémon later on that can learn it. So keep it safe, you hear?"

"Got it." She put the TM away in her bag, and the Boulder Badge as well.  _I'll figure out the bag's layouts later_ , she thought.

As they had been talking, the others slowly walked to them.

"Iggy! You did it!" Terra exclaimed, glomping the girl with a super cheerful hug. She practically shook the ravenette over and over, still amazed. "This is great! I  _knew_ you were great at battling! You might even make it to the top of the world one day!"

"W-whoa, calm down..." Contrary to what she initially thought, being shaken around really wasn't a pleasant feeling.

Hana stepped forward. "Miss Ignis, I think... that was a very impressive match," she said. "The way you and your Bulbasaur's thoughts coordinated with one another... outmaneuvering Mister Brock's Pokémon... it was amazing!"

"Ahaha... really now?" Ignis mentally grimaced. To be truthful, she actually didn't expect her 'strategy' to work as well. Frankly speaking, she was a Leeroy Jenkins-type of player- rush straight into danger and attack whenever she can. The only reason she gave Basil the commands she gave was because she was actually panicking and desperate for victory. Knowing that in real life Pokémon wouldn't take turns, she could only order them to do what she thought would stall for time... not that she could admit that now.

Suddenly, she remembered that Roxanne had also been spectating. Said girl was just behind Hana, having reached the group. "Ignis, was it?" she said.

"Y-yes! That's me!" the girl said.

Roxanne chuckled. "That was a rather amusing match, if I had to say so myself. I never thought I'd see a Trainer win while being restrained with Bind."

"W-well, you know. Gotta consider every chance to win, right?"  _More like gotta stop panicking..._ she thought.

"Say, are you interested in Rock-types?" the Hoenn Gym Leader asked.

"I... slightly, I suppose..." Ignis replied, unsure. She wasn't that big a fan of Rock-types, truth be told. However, her being a huge fan of Roxanne was probably already obvious to the Gym Leader already, so there had to be a reason for that. And as Roxanne wasn't a Gym Leader yet, apparently, the only methods of fangirling over her were probably things like magazines and TV shows, assuming the girl had been a Rock-type expert even before becoming a Gym Leader.

Her target of admiration chuckled at that. "You sure about that? I can tell you're a huge fangirl..."

"W-well... ahaha..." The girl wasn't sure how to respond to that.  _Huge fangirl of you, and not Rock-types... pft._

"Anyways, Ignis. I'd suggest you go to Cerulean City next," Brock said. "Misty's got the official second badge there, and although there's really no true order of how you should get badges, Cerulean's the closest," he explained. "You just gotta head towards Mt. Moon and get through it."

"Right. I'll catch some more Pokémon too in the meanwhile, I suppose."

Terra tapped the ravenette's shoulder. "Wait, are you telling me we're journeying again?"

"Terra, it's literally morning..."

"And we've only spectated her match so far," Hana pointed out.

"...fine..."

Roxanne and Brock exchanged amused glances.

* * *

"Heeeey!" a voice called out.

Ignis and the group turned around. An unknown man with a white lab coat rushed towards them, waving his right hand wildly. "...huh."

They stood still, waiting for the scientist? ...to catch up. He was still so faraway, they wondered how they even heard his shout.

"...hey, wait! I recognize him!" Terra said. "He's from grandpa's lab!"

"Yes, I do recall seeing him in Professor Oak's lab when I received my Emma..." Hana noted.

Ignis gave them odd looks. _Seriously? I don't remember a single of their faces..._

Eventually, the man caught up to them. "Huff... huff... Arceus I'm tired..."

 _You say huff out loud...?_ Ignis stared. "Uh, hi. Long time no see, uh, Bob."

"B-Bob...?" He pulled his glasses off, wiped it, and put it back on. "My name's not-"

"What're you doing here, Builder?" the ravenette asked.

He pulled something from his bag. "Oh, well, your mother came to our lab and told us you... wait, I'm not Bob the Builder, got it?"

She laughed. "Alright."  _That cartoon exists in this world too...?_

Wait, they were repeatedly getting off-track. The scientist shook his head, determined to get his business over with. "A-anyways, your mother told us you left your phone on at home on the table," he said. He handed over a red mobile phone to the girl, who seemed even more confused. "Also, she forgot to give you these new babies."

"B-babies!?" Hana repeated. She did not like where this conversation was hea-

"Running Shoes?" Ignis asked.  _Thank goodness I remember what this was about_ , she thought. Memories of how glad she was to be able to hold the B button surfaced in her mind just a few seconds ago. When given a questioning look, she faked a smile. "Well, I saw the box in the house many times. Mom's not good at hiding it."

"Right."

Hana remained confused. "...babies?"

Ignis snickered. "Some people have weird fetishes," she explained simply.

"T-that's not it!" Bob... uh, the scientist denied.

Meanwhile, Terra, who had been searching within her bag, frowned. "Ah."

"Yes, your phone too. I brought it too." He handed over a green mobile phone to Terra, who happily accepted it. "Say, do you have a phone, Miss Hana?"

The blonde nodded. "Yes. My father told me to carry it at all times, so that is indeed what I have always done."

"Oooh, hey. Let's exchange contacts," Terra suggested.

Hana complied and displayed her number for both Ignis and Terra to add.

 _Funny, I don't think the first generation remakes had a phone system..._ Ignis thought in the meanwhile. The only thing she recalled close to a phone was the PokéNav from the third generation games. Then again, who cares? Now communication can be easily and conveniently done.

"Hey, I should get Roxanne's number too," she mused.

"Oh look, it's that girl from Brock's gym," Terra suddenly said as she pointed to the sky.

Ignis' head immediately turned where she pointed. "W-what?" True to the brunette's words, Roxanne was sitting on top of a Pokémon floating in the sky, flying away. "What the...?" The Pokémon in question was a huge rock resembling the... uh...  _those island stonehenge things._ She didn't know the term or whatever, but she recognized that Pokémon- it was a Nosepass... or at least, it seemed like it.

Wait, Nosepass had an evolution too. She quickly racked inside her mind...  _what was it... um... Probopass!_

The Probopass was floating somehow, and carrying Roxanne on its head, flying away towards an unknown direction. "A-aahhh, noooo... Roxanne..."

Hana chuckled. "Well, we might meet her again in the future."

"Sure... hopefully..." Sighing, Ignis shook the scientist's hands and walked away with her group. They had already received Brock's number on paper, as the man had left his phone in the meeting room and was too lazy to go get it, and this was apparently a common occurrence so he always carried small business cards with his number on it. Not that she cared.  _I just wanted Roxanne's number... uuu..._

"Bye, Bob!" Terra waved to the scientist.

"N-not you too..." he shouted, before walking away the opposite direction.

* * *

"Hey, Basil! Say ' _cheeeese_ '~!" Ignis cooed. Her Bulbasaur smiled as it raised its head, staring at the phone's camera. A small flash of flight, and it jumped with joy as Ignis checked the photo. "D'aw. You cute little rascal..."

"You sure are getting attached to that phone," Terra said. She looked back at her Caterpie, commanding it to dodge an attacking female Nidoran. "W-whoa, close call."

Ignis snapped another picture of her starter Pokémon. "Yeah... Basil just looks so adorable!" she squealed. Then, eyes twinkling, she turned towards her friend. "S-say, you're not training your Squirtle right now, right...?"

"I-Iggy, really...?" the brunette muttered. With a sigh, she motioned her spectating Squirtle to go to her friend. Squirty shrugged and waddled over to the ravenette.

"Whoa... sweet."

Hana, who was observing Terra fight and petting her Charmander and Weedle at the same time, blinked. "...is it that fun, Miss Ignis?"

The ravenette nodded. "Yeah, surprisingly. Wanna try?"

"...j-just a bit."

Grinning, Ignis pulled the blonde over and opened her phone's gallery, showing some pictures she took of her Bulbasaur. "See, look at this cute fella... look how they're smiling... just so pure...!"

Hana slowly nodded. "I... have to admit, he  _is_ quite cute."

Grinning, Ignis tapped Terra's Squirtle's shoulder. "Hey, uh... Squirty, right?" It nodded. "Can you try standing next to Basil and pose together?" Another nod. It then waddled over to Basil and put what was probably its elbow on the Grass-type's back, just next to its bulb. "Yeah... that's good." She snapped another picture. "Oooh. See? See? Look at that..."

The blonde gulped. "W-wow. The more I look, the cuter I seem to find it..." She then looked at her Charmander. "...M-Miss Ignis! Do you think Emma can participate as well?"

"Huh? Oh, of course! We could have them be the trio of Professor Oak's Pokémon!" Ignis said.

Hana smiled. "I thank you very much! Emma, what do you think?" The Charmander cheered and joined its group of friends, the three starting to make random cutesy poses.

Terra, meanwhile, was becoming frustrated for reasons. "Why the heck are you two enjoying photography while I'm fighting for my life here!?" she said.

Ignis turned her head. "...I think you're doing fine right now," she said.

Contrary to the brunette's claim, the female Nidoran had been subdued with several white sticky strings. Her Caterpie- otherwise named Petal- was arrogantly using repeated Tackles on the entangled critter.

"...hmph." The brunette went back to her battle and took out a Pokéball. She stared at the female Nidoran. "I'll just... catch it, I guess."

"Whoa, l-look at how they're posing! Ohmygosh!"

"T-that is quite a cute picture..."

"Oh! Hey! Now they're acting like punks!"

"Oh my...! M-Miss Ignis! Take the picture!"

She gritted her teeth. "Aarrgh! Stop messing around!" Terra exclaimed, throwing the Pokéball towards the Nidoran with a bit too much force. It only managed to give a shocked and confused yelp before being hit with the device, disappearing into it. The ball fell down, then shook thrice. The brunette widened her eyes. "...whoops. ...but hey. Yay."

Ignis snickered. "Sorry, Terra. It was just getting a bit too fun."

"I apologize, Miss Terra," Hana said. "It truly is marvelous though, and I-"

"Urgh, now I feel like the babysitter," Terra said. "Jeez, remember that we're here to help grandpa fill his Pokédex."

 _...well that's not my main goal, but whatever..._ Ignis thought. "Right. Anyways, sweet catch."

"Huh? Oh, uh, right." Terra picked up her newly used Pokéball, checking her Pokédex. "A Nidoran... with a female symbol. Odd."

"So? What's its nickname going to be?"

She stared at her friend. "D... do I have to nickname every Pokémon I catch...?" she asked.

Ignis shrugged. "Nah. I just think nicknames are nice."

"Well, if you say so..." The brunette called out her new Pokémon and picked it up, staring into its eyes. "Hmmm... a cute little thing like you..." She kept on staring, unsure of what to name it. "...yeah, I don't know..."

Hana smiled. "May I make a suggestion?" she asked. "How about Ranne?"

"Ranne... eh, alright," Terra said. "I can't come up with any other name anyways. Let's call you Ranne from now on!"

The female Nidoran barked happily at its new Trainer. " _Ra~_ "

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Team IGNIS:** Bulbasaur (Lv15)  
>  **Team TERRA:** Squirtle (Lv11), Caterpie (Lv6), Nidoran(F) (Lv7)  
>  **Team HANA:** Charmander (Lv12), Weedle (Lv6)


	11. Predators Within the Dark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ignis and Terra are ambushed by bats. Terrible, annoying bats.

Basil the Bulbasaur rammed another Trainer's Jigglypuff, sending it slamming against some rocky walls. "That's my win!" Ignis exclaimed.

The lass opposite to her side grimaced. "Jigglypuff! Argh..." She reluctantly recalled her Pokémon back and pulled out some Pokédollars. "Here you go..."

Ignis hesitantly accepted the cash- it still felt extremely wrong no matter how many times she won against other Trainers- and shoved it inside her pocket. "Right. Cute Jigglypuff, by the way."

"Uh, thanks." The girl walked towards where Ignis and the group were heading.

The ravenette then remembered there being another Pokémon Center before the entrance of Mt. Moon. "Right, I guess I should go heal there first, too." She turned her head slightly. "Terra, Hana. Ready to go?"

Said two aforementioned girls were observing some pictures that Terra took this time- the brunette didn't want to be the only one who didn't take pictures. They glanced at Ignis, who seemed to be patiently waiting for them. "Uh, right. Coming," Terra said and put her phone away.

"Miss Terra, would you mind sending me that picture later?" Hana asked.

The brunette snickered. "Sure. Great meme quality expression on that Jigglypuff right there."

Ignis raised an eyebrow, but decided not to question it. When she turned back, she saw her Bulbasaur twitching. "Basil? What's wrong, boy? ...or girl."  _Eh, screw gender issues for now,_  she thought. Suddenly, Basil's body glowed white, to the surprise of the three. They all realized what was happening though.

"I-iggy! She's... uh, he's... um-"

"Evolving!" Hana finished. "...perhaps the Pokédex can tell the gender," she suggested.

Ignis blinked.  _Right, that thing._ She quickly pulled her Pokédex out, while at the same time also tapping some icons on her mobile phone. On one hand, she examined the Pokédex analysis of what was still currently regarded as a Bulbasaur- "He's male!" she said. On the other hand, she quickly opened her camera app and recorded the evolution, watching the scene raw with her eyes rather than the phone.

Sad, because she didn't realize the angle was quite off and the camera only barely caught the bottom of Basil's face and his feet.

Disregarding that, her gaze was  _captured_ by the sight. She didn't think Pokémon evolution in real life would actually be this beautiful- contrary to what she expected, her Bulbasaur was indeed glowing but didn't become completely white. She could see his skin bulging and growing, and some unknown white dust flew from nowhere to form new traits for him.

Basil let out a roar filled with pride, and when the light died down, as she stopped recording, what stood in her Bulbasaur's place was now an Ivysaur.

"Holy shit, Basil! You evolved! This is great!" Ignis cheered. She picked him up happily, but almost fell down. "Whoa. Heavy fella. Oh well, you're amazing!"

The Ivysaur smiled. " _Saur!_ "

"Wow, I already knew how an Ivysaur would look like, but..." Terra said. "He still looks a lot cooler now!"

Hana stared at the evolved starter. "I do not know much about Pokémon yet, so this is quite a surprise to me," she said. "I wonder how Emma will look like when she evolves..."

"Your Charmander? I can guarantee, the final form is hella cool," Ignis said.

"I see... We must keep training then, Emma!" Hana said, to her Charmander's delight.

"Anyways, let's head on to the Pokémon Center ahead! Then we'll go through Mt. Moon!"

* * *

Few minutes later, after having the local Nurse Joy heal their Pokémon, the trio were ready to depart.

They stood at the entrance of Mt. Moon, peering into the cave. "Huuhh... kinda eerie, isn't it?" Ignis said.

Terra groaned. "Please don't try to scare us..."

"Uh, that wasn't an attempt."

Hana patted the brunette. "I-it is alright, Miss Terra. You have a swords wielder like me around," she said. However...

"Your legs are shaking, Hana," Ignis pointed out.

The blonde's face turned red. "N-no, that is just... excitement. Yes. Dangerous opponents await inside, after all."

Shrugging, Ignis took the first step into the cave. "Well, in case anything bad happens, we should stick together, I suppose." The two exchanged glances before hesitantly following after the ravenette. They both grabbed each side of her arm, looking around nervously. "...it's not even that dark in here."

"I-it's still pretty dark," Terra said. "...actually I think it's getting darker the further we're in..."

"...Hana, you okay?" Ignis shifted her focus to the blonde.

Said swordswielder nodded quietly.

"Man, you must be really afraid of the dark." However, Ignis noticed that perhaps Terra wasn't wrong- the cave walls seemed to become darker in color, less light reaching her eyes.

Few minutes of walking passed, and soon the only source of light they had were frequent glowing stones embedded in the walls.

She wasn't even sure how deep they were in the cave.

Seconds passed.

Minutes passed.

At some point, Hana let go of her side, most likely trying to brave through the cave without holding someone closely.

More seconds passed.

More minutes passed.

Ignis blinked. The quietness of their exploration so far felt rather awkward to her. She decided to strike up a conversation.

"Rather silent journey so far, isn't it?" she asked.

Terra simply nodded. "Y-yeah..."

Ignis noticed more glowing stones appearing in the walls. "...kinda romantic feel to it," she muttered.  _Wait, wouldn't this situation be...?_

"...Iggy," the brunette suddenly said. "Y-you know, um... I want to tell you something..."

 _Uh oh._ "Y... yeah?"

Beat.

"I just... think that right now's a good chance... with no interruptions..."

"U-uh huh. Go on..." Ignis had an inkling of what she was going to say. However, something else was bothering her, so her focus wasn't much on her friend's words right now.  _That's odd... not a single wild Pokémon has attacked us yet,_ she thought. She felt Terra grab her hand, causing her to blush slightly, but it didn't affect her too much.  _C-could she choose any better timing..._

Terra gulped. "Um... Iggy... r-right now, I'm..."

 _Speaking of which, there should be plenty of Zubat in caves..._ Ignis recalled. She looked up, but saw nothing on the caves.

"...I'm..."

Ignis frowned, but kept listening to the brunette as her eyes darted around. Were cave exploration supposed to be this peaceful?

"...n-not feeling so well..." Terra fell to her knees.

 _Huh?_ Ignis turned sideways. "T-Terra?" she asked, kneeling down to examine the girl.  _The heck? Is she sick?_ She touched the brunette's forehead. Nothing out of the ordinary. "W-what's wrong, Terra?"

"M-my head's hurting..." the brunette said.

Ignis shook her head.  _What the heck's going on with Mt. Moon?_ Of course, now that her companion seemed to be doing not so well, Terra was now of a higher priority than Mt. Moon's oddities. "U-uh, hang on to me. I'll get us out of the cave soon enough... I hope." She wasn't sure if that was possible so far, but whatever.

Terra's head hurts. Headaches, she recognized. Why out of nowhere, though? And so suddenly?

 _Wait... that reminds me of the Confusion status in the games..._ she thought. And when she thought of the Confusion status...  _Zubat._ Her eyes widened.  _Were we being tailed by Zubat...?_

From the corner of her ears, she began hearing the noise of wings flapping.  _Welp, here comes the Zubat._

But Zubat were quite small, and their wings shouldn't make flaps as loud as what she was hearing. She slowly walked forward, Terra's arms around her neck, as she tried to look back. "What the hell could also be here...?"

Slowly, a different bat Pokémon appeared from the darkness. Her eyes widened-

"What the shit, that's a Golbat..." she muttered. The Golbat seemed to be taking its time, flying really slowly towards them. "What is it even doing here... oh."

Zubat lived in caves, sure, but just because they were the only one from their evolutionary line you could encounter in the game, it didn't mean their evolved forms couldn't be found there. She kept forgetting that this was no longer a game, and that this was a reality now- her  _new_  reality.

"Shit, shit, shit... bats suck blood..." The ravenette tried to increase her speed, but Terra wasn't exactly someone light that you could easily carry without being slowed down. She looked back- the Golbat was inching closer.

...wait, where the heck was Hana?

Ignis tensed her eyes, trying to make out the shape of a person with blonde hair, but couldn't see anyone behind the incoming Golbat. "H-Hana!? Where the hell...!?"

 _Shit, it's getting closer._ Figuring there wasn't any safe way out of this, she grinned and gently put Terra down.

"I-Iggy..." the brunette whimpered.

"S'alright, Terra. I'll finish this soon enough." Ignis grabbed her Pokéball. "Basil! Relying on you here!" she said as she summoned her starter Pokémon. She had recalled him as he couldn't do anything to help with light sources, and she figured it was better to have him contained rather than somehow lose him in a cave- assuming it could happen. Although, she supposed the walk to this point was extremely easy, as they had only been walking in a straight direction- but seeing as somehow Hana disappeared, it might have been possible to lose someone after all. "Basil, Leech Seed with Sleep Powder!"

Nodding, her starter Pokémon prepared its seeds and shot it randomly towards the Golbat's direction. It successfully dodged it, but some Zubat that appeared within seconds were hit by it and wrapped in sprouting vines, falling to the ground. The Golbat didn't seem to care at all, though, and proceeded near them.

"Shit, that did nothing to the Golbat..." Ignis muttered. She didn't know exactly how much blood these creatures could or would drink, but Golbat sure are huge as hell. She didn't want to risk becoming as thing as a stick... nor see Terra become a stick. "V-Vine Whip!"

Basil shot out some vines, aimed at Golbat. The bat dodged them again, and to Ignis surprised, it violently flapped its wings. Barely visible blades of air formed and were sent cutting through her Ivysaur's vines, causing it to flinch and jump back instinctively.

"A-Air Cutter!" Ignis assumed. She cursed herself for forgetting Golbat had Flying-type moves, something her starter was weak against. "God, this isn't turning out so well..."  _And Hana might be in danger too..._ Fearing for the worst, she turned to the Ivysaur. "Basil, carry Terra and run up ahead. I'll save some time," she said.

Basil blinked, then stared at her with its jaws dropped. She knew what his expression said right away:  _Are you for real?_

She grinned, although her Pokémon could tell it was forced, even if a bit smug. "Nah, don't worry. I got a plan."

"... _s-saur!_ " Nodding, the Grass-type grabbed Terra with its newly-grown vines and held her above him. He ran off towards what they all hoped was an exit.

Ignis watched her Pokémon and friend disappear into the shadows, before turning back to the Golbat, who, for unknown reasons, waited patiently. "Heh. It's just you and me now, asshole!"

Even though she couldn't exactly tell, the Golbat seemed to be grinning despite its wide open jaw. It charged straight towards the girl, who dodged sideways.

"Hah! You'll have to- urgh!" She crashed into the walls. "Crap, that hurts..."

Golbat flew towards her again.

She paled, but brought her arm up in defense. "Get lost!" she shouted.

Instead, the Golbat dug its fangs inside her arm. She yelped in pain, but tensed her arm. The Golbat's eyes seemed smug, and then it began to drain blood from her.

To its confusion, the Trainer grinned. Ignis stared Golbat straight into the eye. "Got you in one place now, you damned bat."

The Golbat rolled its eyes. It was obviously thinking something amongst the lines of:  _What can you do now?_

She snickered. "At the cost of some blood, I wouldn't really care if I can capture something powerful."

It didn't seem so smug anymore, just confused. Then it saw Ignis use its other hand to reach for a Pokéball. The Golbat widened its eyes- it knew what that device was for.

Suddenly, she pinned the Golbat to the wall, her arm trapped with its fangs, it trapped by her arm and the wall. "Too bad for you, Golbat. It seems I have the winning advantage here," she whispered. The Golbat gulped, before she tapped its forehead with the Pokéball.

Soon, the Golbat disappeared,  contained within her Pokéball. She sighed and weakly picked it up- it shook three times, before it stopped moving.

Ignis smiled. "Yes! Got a Golbat!" she exclaimed. "Extremely lucky, too... would've been impossible if I didn't trap it..." She pocketed the Pokéball, then stared at the two holes in her arms. Small amounts of blood trickled from her wounds. "Urgh. That's not good..."

Suddenly, more Zubat screeches were heard from behind. She turned around-  _shit! I forgot Golbat wasn't the only pest here!_

She paled as a swarm of Zubat approached her. She might just leave this cave with a bit more holes than expected... if she could leave at all. Bracing herself, she prepared to make a run for it-

" _Chuuuuu!_ "

Yellow sparks spread throughout the cave, electrocuting the purple bats everywhere. She flinched as they all dropped to the ground, twitching but unconscious. Slowly, a Pikachu emerged from the darkness. "A-a Pikachu...? Wait, are you...?"

" _Pika pi!_ " the Pikachu hissed, then motioned for her to run.

She blinked. "...o-oh, right." She turned around and ran, Pikachu following her. "Thanks, Pikachu! What're you doing here though?"

The Pikachu glared at her. " _Pika pi, pikachu!_ "

Ignis grimaced. "As I thought, of course I can't understand." The running lasted for a bit over ten seconds, in silence. She eventually reached what seemed like an open clearing of the cave- sunlight poured from the circular open space of the cave's roof. She covered her eyes- "G-gah. Bright..." Then she spotted Basil keeping guard over a resting Terra, while several pink fairy-like Pokémon were watching out of curiosity. She stared. "C-Clefairy!? ...a-and Clefable too...!? W-wait no, Terra!"

The girl ran over to Basil, who smiled at the safety of his Trainer.

"Thanks, Basil. You did great." She petted the Grass-type shortly, and then gently caressed Terra's head. "You'll be alright here, Terra. I'll... go find Hana for now. Just wait a bit more." She turned around to run back where she came from, to Pikachu's confusion.

" _P-pika!_ " the Pikachu yelled, stopping her in her tracks.

She smiled at the rodent. "Take care of them for me, and we'll talk later. 'kay?"

Without waiting for a response she probably wouldn't understand anyways, she ran back inside the entrance she had just exited.

Then she collapsed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Team IGNIS:** Ivysaur (Lv16), Golbat (Lv22)  
>  **Team TERRA:** Squirtle (Lv11), Caterpie (Lv6), Nidoran(F) (Lv7)  
>  **Team HANA:** Charmander (Lv12), Weedle (Lv6)


	12. Toxic-Dyed Trust

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hana reunites with Ignis and Terra during a terrible situation.

Hana cowered as the darkness surrounded her. "M-M-Miss Ignis... w-where are you...?" she said to herself, wishing for her friend to appear.

She didn't.

The blonde opened her eyes slightly. Emptiness still surrounded her. She breathed in and breathed out to calm herself, then slowly stood up, legs still shaking. Hopefully some ghosts wouldn't show up. "R-right. I can do this. I have a sword." The girl's hands found their way towards the sheathed sword she kept at her side. Again calming herself down, she slowly took some steps.

At some point during their walk, she had no idea how, but she became separated from Ignis and Terra.

That shouldn't even remotely possible, no matter how many times she thought about it. After all, they were just walking in a straight line.

"...huh?" She turned around- the path she had been walking didn't look straight at all. In fact, it was an obvious curved tunnel that she couldn't mistake for even a second. "..."

The girl shook her head. She had crossed through Mt. Moon once- when she was busy chasing that blasted blonde haired man all the way from Saffron City. There was no way she could be lost in a cave she had ran through.

...then again, the more she thought about it, she was busy running and screaming and swinging her sword around rather than adventuring, so perhaps... she didn't know her way.

Suddenly an idea struck her head. "T-that's it! Emma's tail..." She called her Charmander out, smiling with relief when it chirped happily at the sight of its Trainer. "E-Emma. I need you as a, um, light source... s-sorry, the truth is, I am... um, really bad with the dark."

The Charmander glanced at her curiously, before nodding with understanding. " _Char!_ " It tensed its body, and the flame on its tail grew brighter. Only slightly. But brighter.

Hana felt so relieved. She stared at her other Pokéball. Perhaps...

She let out her Weedle. "U-um, hello. I know I haven't let you out so far, but... p-please stay with me," she said. "I might, um, need help with battling wild Pokémon off... i-is that okay? Um... how about... Mel?"

Her Weedle, now named Mel, stared at her for a while before it turned away. It seemed to shrug and accept its situation.

Smiling with relief, Hana now felt a bit more confident in her survival.

Then she heard the sound of some wings flapping lightly. "...I feel like danger is going to fall upon us very soon..."

* * *

Ignis panted, trying to push herself up. "Run, damn it..."

Pikachu scurried over to her side. " _Pikachu, pikapi...?_ " It's mouth dropped open when it saw a problem- her left arm was turning purple. " _P-pi!_ "

She groaned. "Pikachu...? Ugh, go stay with them... I need to find Hana..."

The yellow rodent growled. " _Pika!_ "

Ignis weakly stared at the rat. Then, smiling, she stood up. "...Pikachu, can you go find Hana for me?" she asked, expecting a rejection.

Pikachu stared at her, not answering her question.

She sighed and staggered over to where Basil and Terra were. "...Basil, go with Pikachu and find Hana for me," she said. "I'll watch over Terra... I suppose."

The Ivysaur frowned. " _S-saur..._ "

His Trainer shook her head. "These Pokémon won't do anything," she said and stared at the spectating Pokémon around her. Several pink shapes were watching curiously- Clefairy and Clefable. Some moving lumps of rocks didn't seem to care much about their presence- Geodude and Graveler. Scuttling mushrooms seemed to hide from them with curiosity and awareness- Paras and Parasect. She smiled. "They wont' do anything, and I won't do anything. I'll be fine."

Hesitantly, Basil nodded. " _Saur!_ " He ran back into the entrance that he had escaped from. Pikachu stared at Ignis for a few more seconds, before following.

Ignis chucked. "Atta boy... or girl..."

* * *

A certain blonde swung her sword towards a Zubat, the latter dodging peskily. She pulled her sword up to swing again, but the Zubat was charging right at her, so she had to drop her sword as she jumped away from it, the opponent flying past her. "D-damn..."

Her Pokémon weren't doing so well either. It was hard for her Charmander and Weedle to use Ember or Poison Sting- respectively- and actually hit the Zubat.

Those flying critters are rather quick to dodge.

There were lucky hits every once in a while, but not enough to defeat.

"...E-Emma! Mel! Um, focus on one instead of different targets!" Hana said. "That way perhaps it'll be easier to defeat at least one..."

Emma nodded and jumped towards another Zubat. It flew backwards to dodge the lizard's claws, but a sharp needle stung it at its stomach all of a sudden. The Zubat flinched, then seemed to glare at her Weedle.

Then, without noticing, the Zubat was tackled down by the Charmander, which quickly crept behind it while it was glaring at the worm-like Pokémon.

Roaring, Emma spat out some fireballs at the Zubat underneath its grip. It screeched loudly as the Charmander kept using Ember, until eventually it stopped moving.

"G-great job, Emma!" Hana said. Then she dodged another charging Zubat. "Argh, these are quite annoying..." she said.

Suddenly, her Weedle began glowing. She widened her eyes.

"M-Mel! You're evolving... already!?"

Unable to answer, her Weedle stood up vertically and hard shells formed around its body, its iconic needle disappearing.

What remained in place of her Weedle was a Kakuna. Hana smiledat her Pokémon's growth- then dodged yet another Zubat. "Gah, they just don't stop coming...!" She took another look at her Kakuna- could it still use Poison Sting...? Because if so, she wasn't sure where the needle would come from. The Zubat didn't seem to be poisoned at all, so she assumed they were immune to poison, but it did hurt them a little, even if a bit. "Mel, can you still use Poison Sting?"

Her Kakuna stared at her, before it nodded very slightly and moved its... arms? She blinked.  _Oh, those are its arms... apparently._ It pointed them at the swarm of Zubat. Stingers materialized and were shot towards the flying critters. One hit a Zubat, another was dodged.

Hana nodded. "Good enough. I'm going to carry you!" she said.

Quickly picking Mel up, she aimed it towards the swarm. "K-keep shooting if you can!" she exclaimed. The Kakuna nodded and began shooting an amount of stingers that almost seemed unlimite.

"Emma! We're running away!" she quickly added.

The Charmander nodded and began scurrying after its Trainer.

* * *

The Pikachu quietly strolled after the Ivysaur in front of it. _"Piiika pika chu?"_ it scowled.

Basil barely even glanced back. _"Ivysaur?"_

The rodent simply felt irritated. _"Pika pii, pika chu. Pikachu. Pika, pika pi."_

_"...saur saur?"_

_"Pi! Pika pika pikachu, pikachu, pika pi, pikachu! Pika pika!?"_

Basil stopped walking and stared at the Pikachu. _"...Ivysaur."_

 _"Ugh. Pika,"_ Pikachu began, _"pika pi pika pi pikachu chu!?"_

Basil continued staring. _"...Ivysaur."_

Rolling its eyes, Pikachu grumbled, _"Pika, pi pika pika..."_

Suddenly they heard footsteps heading towards them. They jumped a bit, before preparing for combat.

"...lp! I-is anyone out there!?" a voice familiar to Basil echoed.

_"S-saur saur! Ivysaur!"_

_"Ppppika pi."_

They stared. Hana slowly appeared from the darkness, carrying a Kakuna (they decided not to question it), her Charmander following suit.

The two relaxed a bit. Then they saw the swarm of Zubat following the team, and perhaps a few Golbat mixed into the swarm.

 _"...saur,"_  Basil muttered.

 _"Pika pika pi pikachu...?"_  Pikachu wondered.

Hana saw the two. "T-those are... M-Miss Ignis' Ivysaur and... a Pikachu?" She was about to question it, but another Zubat caught up to her and was about to bite into her shoulder when she jumped sideways and continued running. "U-um! Sorry, can you two please help?" she yelled.

 _"Saur, saur saur Ivy... saur."_ Basil's voice died when his vision registered the few Golbat in the swarm. Their Air Cutter technique did not really please him. _"...saur saur ivysaur, ivy ivy saur saur?"_

Pikachu rolled its eyes. _"Pika pi."_ It strolled towards the blonde, stopping short in front of the group of bats. _"Pika pi! Pikachuuuuuu!"_

Lightning emanated from the rodent's body, then spread through the cave with a speed Hana wasn't sure was even possible.

It wasn't even a second until suddenly all the bats were screaming and petrified in the air, all falling to the ground one by one.

She soon stood upon the sight of perhaps more than twenty unconscious Zubat and few Golbat. "W-wow... so this is a Pikachu's power..." she muttered.

 _"Ivy ivy saur, ivysaur!"_  Basil the Ivysaur cheered. Hana noticed him and smiled with relief, petting his head.

"Thank you, um... Basil, yes." Her Charmander and Kakuna cheered as well.

Pikachu rolled its eyes and walked back to the blonde. _"Pika pi, pikachu. Pika pika pi, pika pikachu,"_  it said, nudging her towards where they came from.

Hana nodded. "O-okay, I'll get going..." she said.

Emma jumped on top of Basil's head, happily riding it. The Ivysaur didn't seem to mind it one bit, probably knowing the lizard was tired from running. He offered Pikachu a ride too, but the rodent simply ignored him.

Hana decided to keep holding Mel the Kakuna in her arms.

* * *

When she arrived at the clearing where her companions were resting, she first noticed the amazing sight of several dark glowing stones embedded almost everywhere. "Wow... this is quite a sight," she whispered to herself. As the day was still fresh, sunlight was pouring in easily from the ceiling opening, but she had an inkling the view would definitely be a lot more beautiful if at night.

Suddenly, she noticed a gathering of small pink Pokémon.  _"...clef?"_ they voiced when they noticed the girl's presence.

Hana slowly walked towards them. They seemed to be observing something. As she got closer, she saw two figures lying down. She recognized them immediately- "M-Miss Ignis!? And Miss Terra!?" The blonde quickly rushed over to them, the Clefairy and Clefable parting to let her through.

A bunch of Geodude surrounded the two bodies. She frowned and was about to wave her sword and chase them, but the Geodude saw her and parted as well.  _Were they guarding the two...?_ She supposed it was something about the law of nature that these Pokémon watched over two strangers, but she was thankful nevertheless.

She knelt down, examining her friends. "Miss Terra... she seems... okay?"

Ignis opened her eyes weakly. "...oh, Hana... there you are," she rasped.

"M-Miss Ignis? Are you o...!" The blonde paled. Ignis' left arm was almost completely purple, the color about to reach her hand and shoulder. "M-Miss Ignis! You are-"

"It's nothing," Ignis hissed. "I'm just... glad you're back here, safe and sound, I suppose."

"Nothing... nothing!?" Hana dropped her bag and searched inside. "P-please hang on, I believe I have an Antidote somewhere here..."

Ignis chuckled. "Do they even... work on humans?" she asked.

"I..." The blonde paused and frowned.  _Do they?_ Now she didn't know if she should try using it on her friend. Her  _human_ friend. "..."

"...hey, it'll be alright," Ignis said. "The exit is probably not so far from here..."

"B-but... there's too many paths!" Hana pointed out. Truly, the center was connected to many different paths. Mt. Moon wasn't that big, so some paths definitely connected and would lead them back here- a waste of time considering the venom was spreading through Ignis' veins. "I... I don't think we can make it, Miss Ignis..."

Smiling gently, Ignis petted the blonde's head. "Don't... don't worry. I... think I got this..." She grabbed her Pokéball and tossed it.

A Golbat came out with a prideful roar.

Hana, Pikachu and Ivysaur flinched. "M-Miss Ignis, that's..."

"The fella that did this," the ravenette replied with a laugh. "Anyways... hey, Golbat."

The Golbat's ears perked and it turned towards its new Trainer. Seeing Ignis' left arm turned purple, it cackled evilly. Hana could hear it in her head-  _'_ _serves you right'_ , the bat seemed to say.

Ignis smiled, however, to everyone's confusion. "I caught you... so you're my Pokémon now."

In response, Golbat scowled.

"Do you think it's possible to... drain the venom out of me?" she asked. "If it's within my veins... you can suck it out, right...?"

"...! Wait, Miss Ignis!" Hana exclaimed "But to do that, it has to-"

"Suck more of my blood, yeah," Ignis finished the sentence for her. "I think it's better than being a test subject... or taking too long though..."

The blonde stared at her with disbelief, before turning to the Golbat. It seemed mildly interested in the offer. "...n-no, that's still risky..."

Ignis shook her head. "It's fine... it'll be fine. I trust in this fella," she whispered.

"W-why? Or actually, h-how can you do that?" Hana asked, the Pikachu nodding.

The ravenette didn't answer the question. However, she turned towards the Pikachu. "Hey, Pikachu. If this guy does anything bad... do whatever you want, 'kay?"

Despite not being under her ownership, the Pikachu nodded.

Then, she grinned at Golbat. "If you want, buddy... I'll even let you go if you help me..."

Golbat stared at her.

Her grin didn't fade at all.

In fact, she seemed to be prepared for whatever it would do- whether it'd result in her death or her survival.

...the Golbat flew in front of her.

"W-wait... you..." Hana said. The Golbat turned slightly, staring her in the eye. "...I... I beg you, please..." she whispered.

The Golbat turned back to Ignis. Then it sunk its fangs into her left arm.

Hana watched.

Pikachu watched.

Basil the Ivysaur watched.

All the Clefairy and Clefable and Geodude watched.

...

It sucked.

...

And it sucked.

...

And it sucked.

...

Then the purple color began fading away from her arm.

Hana broke into a huge smile and dropped her sword. "Miss Ignis!"

Ignis smiled and flashed her thumb to the blonde. "T-told you it'd be fine..." she said.

The blonde nodded and was about to grab the girl's hand happily, but the Golbat was still sucking. "H... hey! That's... that's enough now!"

Ignis' Golbat sucked for another second, then released the girl's left arm and rolled its eyes as it landed on a nearby boulder.

Hana examined her friend's arm- the purple tint had completely disappeared. However, the arm itself was slightly thinner than the girl's other arm. Hana blinked, before sending the Golbat a glare.

Behind her, Basil sighed with relief. The stray Pikachu also seemed content.

Ignis snickered. "Even you're happy, Pikachu? My..."

The Pikachu widened its eyes and growled at her, before glaring at Basil who was knowingly nudging its sides with his vines. " _Pika pi..._ "

_"Saur, saur!"_

At that moment, Terra stirred.

The group looked over to the brunette, as she slowly pushed herself up. "Ugh... my head..." she muttered. Then she noticed everyone looking at her. "...m-morning..."

"Glad you're okay too, Terra," Ignis said.

Terra looked at her friend. "Oh, hey, Iggy." She blinked. "...?" Then she noticed Hana hands around the ravenette's left arm. And she glared. Then she raised an eyebrow. "...say, where are we?"

"Still Mt. Moon," Ignis said.

"Seriously...?" she muttered. Then she noticed several dark stones in the walls and grounds of the cave. "Whoa. This kinda looks beautiful."

Chuckling, her childhood friend grabbed one and threw it to her. "These are Moon Stones. Keep one, it'll be helpful," Ignis suggested, thinking of Terra's female Nidoran.

Terra caught the stone and nodded. "Uh, okay..."

Feeling slightly better now, Ignis got up. "Welp, that's that." She looked up and waved at her Golbat. "Thanks for the help, big guy. You can go now, if you want."

The Golbat stared at Ignis, then looked away. It didn't fly away, however.

"...I still do not trust that creature..." Hana muttered.

"Eh, you'll overcome it soon enough. That asides..." Ignis observed the giant clearing. "This really is a beautiful area, what with all these Moon Stones..." She bent down and picked another stone up. The girl then noticed some Clefairy frowning at her. She stared at them, then at the stone, before smiling. "Hey, Clefairy! Catch this," she said.

One of the staring Clefairy smiled and caught it. It then began glowing white.

"It's... it's evolving?" Terra said. Then she remembered what evolutionary stones were and gasped. "Oh! The Moon Stone can evolve some Pokémon, right! That's why you gave it to me- my Nidoran!"

Ignis nodded. "Just helping out."

Meanwhile, the Clefairy morphed into a Clefable under its glowing form, and when the light faded, it cheered and danced with the other Clefairy and Clefable.

"...cute," Hana whispered.

"Isn't it?" Ignis chimed.

The three and their Pokémon then spent a minute or two watching the Clefairy and Clefable dance. They occasionally pulled other of their own species to dance as well, and in few cases it dragged some Geodude that gave up after several seconds of persuasion.

When they finished dancing, they bowed and cheered.

Ignis couldn't help but smile as she felt memories of her prom experience rush through her head.

She wasn't much of a social person, nor a dancer, but she definitely had her own group during her time. She wasn't popular, but she wasn't unknown either.

In fact, she recalled boasting to her family that she was a 'popular unpopular'- one of the people who aren't 'popular popular', but popular amongst the unpopulars. Or basically, just really good friends with a group of normal or unpopular students.

The girl was feeling nostalgic as she kept watching the group of dancing pink Pokémon, until the ground suddenly shook. "W-whuh-"

Footsteps grew loud from one of the paths connected to the clearing. The three got up and apprehensively faced different paths to prepare for battle.

Then a man in a white lab coat stumbled out. His glasses shattered upon contact with the ground.

Ignis blinked. "Uh...?"

He pushed himself up and, ignoring the broken shards of his broken spectacle, he noticed the three girls.

"Y-you three! You've got to help me!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Team IGNIS:** Ivysaur (Lv16), Golbat (Lv22), Pikachu(?) (Lv?)  
>  **Team TERRA:** Squirtle (Lv11), Caterpie (Lv6), Nidoran(F) (Lv7)  
>  **Team HANA:** Charmander (Lv14), Kakuna (Lv8)


	13. Rockets and Fossils Galore

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ignis and the others encounter their second Team Rocket grunt.

"P-please help me!" the man who seemed like a scientist exclaimed.

 _Did something like this happen in the games?_ Ignis wondered. There was a tiny feeling in her mind that something else important was in Mt. Moon, but she just couldn't figure it out...

Terra quickly went over to the man. "A-are you okay?" she asked.

"That doesn't... forget me! Just h-help me!" the man said.

The brunette didn't understand him at all.

Hana frowned and walked over to the man. She focused her ears on the sound of multiple footsteps following him. "...Miss Terra, let's carry him a bit back," she said.

"Uh, okay..." The two helped the man up to his feet and properly brought him over to where Ignis stood, where they assumed he should be safe.

The blonde then looked at the path the man came from- suddenly, around three more men darted out. "That's...!"

"T-Team Rocket!?" Ignis exclaimed. _Wait... was there a fossil event here?_

"Stop right there!" one of the grunts yelled and pointed to the injured man. "You! Hand over the fossils!"

 _Shit, I thought it'd be much later..._ the ravenette thought and gulped. "Hold on, now. What're you three planning?"

The grunts stared at her, then exchanged glances.

"Ha! There's no need for us to tell a little girl anything, but I suppose we'll explain it to you, duncehead!"

_Duncehead... that's new._

"Us Team Rocket are going to gather all the fossils we can find and revive them all!"

"And then, we will add those prehistoric Pokémon to our army and be closer to conquering the world!"

Terra frowned. "Wait, what about space? Why're you guys called Team Rocket?"

The grunts snickered. "Well, that's..." they began, but paused. They exchanged glances, then whispered amongst themselves.

"...hey, wait!" one of them suddenly shouted. "Stop trying to distract us and hand over the fossils already!"

Ignis stared at the injured man.

He shook his head. "I'm... I'm not handing them over! I worked hard, day and night, to find these. Fossils are my life! I'd rather die than hand them over!"

 _Uh, you'd be dead if they kept attacking you for it anyways._ She smiled. "It's alright, mister. We'll handle this for you- we've got a bone to pick with Team Rocket anyways."

"We do?" Terra asked.

"We can't let these... these fakers commit any more heinous deeds that soils my father's company's name!"

Ignis stared at Hana. Then she remembered what the girl said in Viridian Forest. "Oh... right. Yeah, that."

The three grunts seemed to be waiting for them to finish talking, and grab their Pokéball. "Done planning your futile plans yet?"

"Sure are!" Ignis replied. "Basil! Tie them all up!"

"Wait, what-"

 _"Saur!"_ the Grass-type roared and stretched its vines towards the three grunts. They barely managed to scream before her Ivysaur successfully wrapped the three together, allowing almost no movement from them.

"G-gah! That's cheating!"

Ignis laughed. "Sure isn't," she said.

"Wow... that's... and here I was thinking we'd have to battle," Terra commented.

Hana smiled. "Well, now all that is left is to interro-" 

"Not so fast!" the grunts exclaimed. Suddenly, their hands- which were tightly sealed besides them- dropped their Pokéball. Ignis thought this was them giving up, but somehow, one way or another, all the balls landed on their buttons and clicked. "Get them, fools!"

Immediately, two Rattata, two Zubat, two Sandshrew and one Ekans appeared in front of them. They hissed at Ignis' group and, save for the Zubat, rushed towards it.

"Free us from these damned vines," they instructed the Zubat, which began to bite on Basil's vines.

Basil winced.  _"S-saur..."_

Ignis pointed forward. "Hana, Terra, you two fight those Pokémon!" she said.

"O-okay! Squirty, Petal, let's go!" Terra exclaimed and threw her respective Pokéballs, summoning her two Pokémon. "...oh, and Ranne too, I suppose!"

"Emma! I'm leaving things to you!" Hana said. "And Mel... well... I believe we can fight even if you ran out of stingers!"

Their Pokémon nodded and faced the group of opponents rushing towards them.

The two impatient Rattata jumped first, aiming its large teeth at the group.

"P-Petal, String Shot!"

"Mel! String Shot!"

The two's Bug-type Pokémon nodded and shot strings at the Rattata. Tangled within the sticky lines, the Rattata fell early to the ground as they struggled to free themselves.

"Squirty! Bubble!" Terra shouted. Her Squirtle nodded and spat out some bubbles towards the fallen Rattata. They were about to make contact, but two Sandshrew jumped out and slashed the bubbles into thin air. "A-ah... damn."

An Ekans then slid in front of them, aiming its maw at Squirtle.

Hana raised her hand. "Mel! Harden!"

Her Kakuna blocked the Ekans' path and hardened its shell. The Ekans bit onto its shell, frowning as it couldn't bite through the hard shell at all.

"Now! String Shot again!" Suddenly, the Ekans found itself being wrapped in sticky white lines directly from in front of it.

"Squirty! Tackle!"

"Emma! Ember!"

The two starter Pokémon prepared their attacks and rammed/burned the Ekans savagely, ignoring its screams until it fainted. They high-fived in delight, until the Sandshrew from before jumped them.

Terra tightened her fists. "Petal! String Shot! Squirty! Water Gun!"

Her Caterpie spewed strings from behind, but the Sandshrew was prepared. They turned around mid-air to slash the strings away, but then at that moment, her Squirtle spewed a huge volume of water at the two, causing them to be pushed away. Coincidentally, they landed on top of the tied up Rattata, and although the rats weren't rendered unconscious, it sure seemed like the two Ground-types were quite heavy.

"Now, everyone! Attack those remaining four!" the two girls yelled together.

Exchanging glances, their Charmander, Squirtle, Caterpie and Kakuna then jumped towards the two tangled Rattata and recovering Sandshrew. Charmander scratched the group with its claws, Squirtle rammed them with its shell, Caterpie tackled them with its body, and the Kakuna did the same with its hardened shell.

It only took seconds before the four were sent to their Trainers' feet, unable to battle anymore.

"D-damn it, you bastards are good..." one of the grunts muttered.

"W-what's taking these stupid idiots so long to free us!?" another grunt asked, returning their focus onto their Zubat- but the annoying critters had fell to the ground, covered in vines that sprouted from their own bodies, fast asleep. "W-what the...?"

"Surprised?" Ignis asked. "While they were stuck biting Basil's vines, I him him shoot Leech Seed on all of them," she explained.

They dropped their jaws, then growled at their Zubat. "You damn incompetent idiots!" one shouted, kicking his Zubat.

Suddenly, air waves struck the ground next to them.

Everyone flinched, and looked up. Ignis' Golbat had flew down from the rock it rested on, glaring at the trio of misfits.  _"Gol..."_

The three Rocket grunts gulped. "I-is... is that..."

"Golbat? Yep," Ignis said. "And I don't think the guy likes how you kicked your Zubat," she added.

They began shaking with fear as the huge bat swooped down upon them. The Golbat then seemed to grin maliciously.

Suddenly, the vines holding them snapped, to Ignis' and her Ivysaur's surprise. "H-ha! I'm free! I'm outta here!" one of the grunt exclaimed.

The others were shocked, before freeing themselves from the traces of the vines and following suit. "W-wait! Don't leave me!"

"I-I don't want to die yet!" the third grunt shouted.

The trio then disappeared.

For good, the girls hoped.

Sighing, they began to relax. "Glad that they're gone now," Terra said.

Hana frowned. "...we could've interrogated them," she said.

Ignis blinked. "...oh yeah." She stared at Basil's broken vines, which regrew itself. "...how'd they even break through though? Some people are just amazing."

The injured man resting behind them smiled and clapped. "T-that was brilliant, you girls! Thank you for saving me from those goons, they were pestering me to hand over the fossils I found repeatedly! I'm so glad they're gone now." He sighed and pulled out two relics from underneath his white lab coat. "If anything happened to these babies, I'd... I'd...!"

Hana stared. "...babies?"

Ignis snickered. "Again, some people have their fetishes," she simply explained.

The scientist rolled his eyes. "Don't judge."

"...wait, so you really-"

"Ah, whatever. Anyways, if you girls want one of these fossils, you'll have to beat me and take it from my hands!" he suddenly yelled. The three girls stared at him with disbelief. "...w-well, at least that's what I would've said if I actually had any Pokémon left available to fight." Sighing, he extended the two to the group. "As thanks for saving me though, you girls can pick one. Not each, just one."

Ignis blinked.  _Huh, this guy's nicer than I thought._ "Um... well... hm. What do you two think?"

"I'm afraid I do not know which one is which," Hana said.

Terra smiled. "Well, you see, this curly one is the Helix Fossil. This other one is the... uh... Dome Fossil."

"That's right," the scientist said. "These fossils can be revived at Cinnabar Island into ancient Pokémon that you wouldn't find anywhere else today. The Helix Fossil becomes an Omanyte, and the Dome Fossil becomes a Kabuto."

"...I still do not know about those species," Hana muttered.

Ignis smiled. "Well, I think I'll go for the Helix Fossil then."  _Gotta respect Lord Helix, haha. Great meme._ She picked the left one from his hands. "Thanks, mister. Now..." She then directed their gazes to the unconscious Pokémon belonging to the three Rocket grunts who ran away. "...what should I do about these?"

The scientist adjusted his glasses. "Well... I suppose you girls won't be able to capture them?" They stared at him. "Of course not, they're already under someone's ownership... then I suppose it's up to me," he said.

"What're you going to do?" Terra asked.

He smiled. "I'll just take them in and help them recover, for the time being. Perhaps if those three don't come back peacefully to reclaim them, I'll have these little guys help me with future fossil excavations."

"..you're a nice person," Ignis commented.

"Where'd that come from...?" Extending a hand, the man smiled at Ignis. "I'm the Super Nerd Miguel. Nice to meet you, um.."

"Ignis. Ignis from Pallet Town," the ravenette replied.

Terra cheered. "I'm Terra! Also from Pallet Town!"

"I'm... Hana, from Saffron City."

Miguel then pointed towards the path the grunts ran into. "That path should lead to an exit, and you should be able to get to Cerulean City."

"Oooh, where do the other paths lead to?" Terra asked.

"Just some dead ends and back to this place."

"Oh."

Ignis smiled. "That's plenty useful. Thanks, Super Nerd!" She turned to her friends. "Let's get going, shall we?"

"Eh, sure," Terra replied.

"I'd be glad to," Hana said.

Ignis turned to Golbat. "What do you say?" she asked. "Want to come with me?"

The Golbat stared at her, before rolling its eyes. However, it didn't fly away, and reluctantly stepped besides her.

"Haha. Good guy. And you, Pikachu?"

The Pikachu stared as well, then mimicked what her Golbat did.

Ignis smiled. "Glad to have you on board, Pikachu."

"W-whoa, look! Petal's evolving!"

...well, she supposed they could observe her friend's evolving caterpillar first before going.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Team IGNIS:** Ivysaur (Lv16), Golbat (Lv22), Pikachu(?) (Lv?)  
>  **Team TERRA:** Squirtle (Lv13), Metapod (Lv7), Nidoran(F) (Lv9)  
>  **Team HANA:** Charmander (Lv15), Kakuna (Lv8)


	14. Safe yet Troublesome

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ignis and the others reach Cerulean City.

"Holy fuckarons!"

Ignis screamed as the three jumped out the cave's mouth, landing on the now-appreciated cool grass outside whilst the swarm of Zubat chasing them stopped and retreated back into the cave of nightmares. Sighing with relief, she faced frontwards again.

"Finally safe at last," she announced.

Her companions chimed in their respective sighs. "Good thing, too," Terra groaned. "Anymore running and my legs would be dead..."

"It certainly has been chaotic," Hana said and glanced at Ignis' left arm.

The ravenette noticed this and smiled. "My arm'll be fine. Lil' buddy here got rid of all poison, right?" she motioned to her Golbat, who grinned.

Hana narrowed her eyes. "...I still do not trust that creature."

"Eh, understandable," Ignis said, to the dismay of the Golbat. Not that the latter minded it any more than a second. "...I think I'll call you Krow," she said to her Golbat.

It shrugged its wings and latched onto her shoulder again.

"Alright, you're Krow then. And Pikachu... well, I know you refuse to let me capture you, but I'll just call you Pika."  _Classic naming like Red. Ahaha, great manga, indeed._ As Ignis said that to her new rodent Pokémon, said electric mouse rolled its eyes and looked away.  _Man, what a tsundere. If that's even the correct term._

"...so, what's after this?" Terra asked. "Hopefully no more caves."

"Nah, should be fine," Ignis replied and pointed straight forward. "I can kinda see Cerulean City from here, slightly. And that scientist dude... uh, Miguelo? Yeah, he said Cerulean City's up ahead. Remember?"

"Uh, sure." The brunette tilted her head. "...was his name really Miguelo?" she then asked.

Ignis shrugged.

"More importantly," Hana interrupted, "we should probably get there before conducting anymore battles. We do not have any Potions left, after all."

 _That, too, and I'm kinda sleepy,_ Ignis thought. "Right. ...what're we waiting for, then? Let's get going!"

The three began trekking towards the city in the distant.

Terra then wondered. "...maybe we should have your Basil carry you, Iggy."

"No, I'm fine, jeez. The arm's not that bad now..." Ignis reassured.

" _Saur!_ " her Basil chimed.

She sighed. "Maybe later. Not now."

"Okay... /  _Saur..._ "

* * *

Within a minute of undisturbed walking, the three smiled when they reached the entrance of the city.

"Whoa, Cerulean City..." Ignis whispered.  _God damn I love that cities look better in reality than in games,_ she thought. _Otherwise it'd be one hell of a dull city,_ she figured. "This seems like a nice place."

"Is there a festival going on?" Terra asked, noticing the faint sound of music and some people dancing a distance away from them. "I think there's a festival going on. What day is it today?"

Hana counted on her fingers. "Um... I believe it is-"

"Not like that," Terra muttered as she rolled her eyes.

Ignis simply shrugged. "Maybe it's a daily fun thing." Not that she cared much about festivals. The girl walked towards the local Pokémon Center. "Welp... I could use a short nap," she said nonchalantly.

Her partners followed her, the brunette slightly confused. "It's still morning though."

"To be fair, it's been one hell of a morning," Ignis replied.

"Touché."

The trio entered the iconic center and nodded as its respective Nurse Joy greeted them. Asked if they would like to have their Pokémon recovered, the three recalled their Pokémon into their Pokéballs and handed them over- asides from Pikachu, who simply got onto the counter on his own free will and refused to be captured. Not a problem.

Nurse Joy smiled. "I shall heal them by the time you come back. Here's the key to your rooms," she said and exchanged the key with the group's money.

Ignis blinked, slightly puzzled, before making her way to their assigned room. "...huh."

"You seem... unsettled," Hana said.

"I just... eh. Pewter's Nurse Joy seemed a lot more... hm."

Terra scratched her head. "If I remembered correctly, they were all sisters... or so they told me before." She laughed. "That's got to be a joke though, right? It'd be kinda weird for an entire healing business thing to be run by an entire family of relatives..."

"...I mean..." Ignis muttered. She definitely remembered the Pokémon anime's Nurse Joys all revealed to be part of a family... or something like that. And Officer Jennies too. Now that she thought about it, such a large family seems quite... wild. "...eh, whatever."

She stopped at a door and unlocked it with the given key, then walked inside. Terra quickly rushed through to hop onto the bed, gleefully bouncing atop like a little child. She rolled her eyes.

"Are you really going to do that with every center we stop at?" she asked.

"Maybe..." Terra replied.

Hana headed over to the restroom. "I... shall take a shower for now, if you don't mind," she said. "...even if it's still morning."

 _What an amazing morning indeed,_ Ignis thought. "Sure. Take your time."

After waiting a while, Terra looked outside the window. "So what're you going to do now?" she asked.

"Uuh... dunno. Haven't thought about that."

Her friend pointed outside with a smile. "You wanna... check out the stuff with me?"

"The... oh, outside."  _Right. Festivals or something, maybe?_ Ignis rubbed her chin. It did seem like it'd be something enjoyable. Then again, it's not like she often partook in festivals in her world, she preferred to stay home. But perhaps... "You'd love to look around, wouldn't you?"

"Huh? Uh... yeah," Terra replied.

Ignis smiled. "Well, sure. ...after a nap."

The brunette stared. "...a nap? Now?"

"One hell of a morning," Ignis repeated after plopping back down on her bed, eyes at the ceiling.

Her friend rolled her eyes, but couldn't disagree. "Then after the nap, can we go check stuff out?"

"Sure. A nap, and then go wild. Call it a date or whatever."

"A da..." Terra blinked. Slowly, her face turned red. "Huh? Iggy, hold on..." Unfortunately, the ravenette was already fast asleep. The brunette blinked again, before smiling helplessly. "Guess it took a huge toll on her..." Sighing, the girl looked back outside the window again.  _I just wanted to hang out with you..._

...Ignis grimaced, faking her sleeping status.  _...why the hell did I say that?_ she thought to herself.

In silence, the two did their nothings and one slowly drifted off to sleep- for real this time.

* * *

_"...wow. One hell of a morning, huh?"_

Ignis blinked. She looked around- seven familiar pure white silhouettes, seven familiar roman numerals. "...do I come here every time I sleep now, or what?"

 _"It would seem to be like that, Miss Ignis, yes,"_   **III** said.

She sighed. "Well, whatever... A nap's a nap, this is good instead of dreaming and oversleeping."

 **I** snickered. _"Excited for the date, I presume?"_ it asked. Ignis glared at it, but unsuccessfully.  _"Ooh, shy one."_

 _"One of these days, she's going to beat you senseless,"_   **IV** muttered.

 _"Haha, I don't think so,_ _"_   **I** replied.

"Oh, I think otherwise," Ignis muttered, unaware of red streaks surfacing on her cheeks.

_"Well, that's it for me then."_

"That asides..." She turned to the most normal one here,  **V**. "I know I was just here yesterday so there's probably nothing new, but... anything new?"

 **V** stared.  _"...well, naturally but regrettably, nothing right now."_

The girl sighed. "Just as expected."

_"However, we can discuss things anytime, if you come to a conclusion about anything. Anything could suddenly unlock new answers, after all."_

"True, true... well, all I got is the crap happening this morning after all."

 _"Ah, the morning with all the bats and rocket clowns,"_   **VII** said.  _"Amusing that you're alive now."_

 _The hell's amusing at all?_ Ignis scratched her head. "Only thing I got is stuff backing the previous stuff about how the world's rather different from my games." Noticing the titans lean forward to listen, she shrugged. "Originally, I'd only find the Pokémon in their first forms, but during the ordeal, waiting for Pika and Basil, I definitely noticed there were evolved Pokémon in the cave. Even more so, the fact that I encountered and caught a Golbat should've been impossible."

 _"Ah, yes, you did catch a Golbat recently..."_   **III** mused.

 **II** shrugged, however.  _"I think I slightly understand what you mean, but... it's a rather natural thing for Pokémon in their evolved forms to exist in the wild. After all-"_

"I know," Ignis interrupted. "...I know. That's exactly why this prophecy is definitely harder- I may have prior knowledge and experience breezing through the region-saving, but as you can see..." she paused, then sighed. "What I had was a handicap. A handicap that I no longer have here. If anything, it's now possible that I could...  _die_."

 **IV** gulped.  _"T-that's a rather... serious assumption. What if-"_

 _"No, that actually makes sense,"_ **V** said.  _"Pokémon aren't just harmless creatures after all- Golbat, for example, are said to be able to drink up to or more than 300mL of blood."_

 _"Yeah, but that's 'up to', not 'always',"_   **I** commented.

"...not necessarily, but regarding that," Ignis muttered. "I read the Pokédex on Golbat recently... it's said they often  _overfeed_ to the point of being unable to fly, and would keep drinking regardless... something like that."

 _"...that's a lot to feed on..."_   **VI** said.

Ignis nodded. "If things turned out badly, I could've actually di... wait, how much blood does a human have?"

The titans exchanged glances. Then they stared at  **V** , who sighed.  _"An average adult human has... 5 liters of blood, if I recall correctly."_

Ignis blinked. "...uh."

_"5,000mL of blood."_

**III** rubbed its chin.  _"So 300mL or more from 5,000mL is drunken by Golbat naturally... that's indeed a lot, yes."_

"And that's not accounting for all the other Zubat, or any more Golbat that could've been there, or the blood loss afterwards," Ignis added. "If anything, I'm surprised I really am alive right now."

 **VII** scratched its head.  _"...to be honest, I'm sure we'd all love to assist you somehow, but it's not like we're magical creatures who can give you higher defense or anything..."_

The girl sighed. "No, that's fine. I'm just going to have to adapt to this situation and live through it somehow."

 **II** nodded.  _"Now that's the perfect resolve. I'll be rooting for you, Miss Ignis."_

Suddenly, the girl began fading in and out. "What the..."

 _"It seems you're about to wake up,"_ **V** said.

"Oh, right, I was taking a nap. Guess I'm already oversleeping, haha."

The other titans chuckled, and waved to her.  _"Stay safe, Miss Ignis. We'll try to support you with more information when available, so don't die out there."_

"Thanks, Three."

With a whoosh, the girl was gone from their dimension.

The titans exchanged glances.  _"I don't know about you all, but I have a feeling she'll survive,"_   **VI** said.

 _"You think?"_    **I** said.  _"GIrl smacked a Golbat against the wall just to catch it instead of running away. Lost a lot of blood to that, too. I say she'll survive, but get in lots of danger."_

 **VII** snickered.  _"It worked, didn't it?"_

_"Anything could've gone wrong, jeez..."_

**V** cleared its throat.  _"Regardless, we have no other choice than to believe in her. She is, after all, the prophecized hero of Kanto... no, the world, perhaps."_

 _"Right,"_ the other Titans nodded in agreement.

* * *

"Shhh... she'll wake up... ah," Terra whispered, frowning upon looking back at her friend and seeing the girl's eyes open.

Hana's hands were fumbling like a mess. "I- ah, I'm sorry, I didn't think..."

"Uhhhhhhuhu... sleepy." Ignis stretched her arms, then scratched her head. "So... what's up now?" she asked.

Terra sighed. "You looked so peaceful sleeping so I thought you wouldn't want to be woken up..."

"B-but it seems I was a bit too loud, I accidentally dropped my sword while grabbing it..." Hana said. "I- I deeply apologize, Miss Ignis!"

"I-it's fine, it's fine," Ignis said. "I was intending to just take a light nap, after all..." Sighing, the girl got up and did some more stretches. "Alright, then... Terra, ready to go?"

Her two companions blinked. "Huh? Go where?" Terra asked.

"You wanted to check out the festivals, didn't you?" Ignis asked. "I'm all ready and charged up. Wanna go on the date now?"

"D-d-date!?" Hana yelped, as Terra turned red again.

The ravenette snickered. "Well, I call it that, but it's just looking around and having fun, resting for the day. You want to come too?" she asked.

To that, Hana blinked and then turned even redder. "M-me!?"

Terra, meanwhile, was also quite speechless.

Ignis smiled. "Sure, I mean... I'm sure Terra wouldn't mind that. Three's more fun than two, am I right?"

"W-well, yeah, but I..." Hana paused and looked over to Terra, who seemed to be lost in thought. "...n-no, it's alright..."

"Aw, really?" the Pallet Town girl said. "Well, that's okay too I guess. Don't bore yourself to death now," she said with a chuckle. "C'mon, Terra. Let's rock the city!"

Terra blinked, and then got up with a smile. "O-okay, right! I'll be right there with you, Iggy! Go on ahead first."

"Sure, sure..." Her voice faded away.

Terra breathed out. "Wow, that was... wow."

Hana chuckled. "You two are rather close, aren't you?"

"Mmhm..." The brunette stared at the blonde, puzzling the swordsgirl.

"M... Miss Terra? Is... is there something wrong?"

"..." Terra stared a bit more, before looking away. "No, it's nothing."

Hana blinked. "...o-okay...?"

The brunette grabbed her phone and purse and headed towards the room's door. "...I'll be back," she said reluctantly.

"M-mnn, see you...?"

As the girl exited the room and headed towards the waiting Ignis, she growled mentally.

 _Don't you_ dare _take her away from me,_  she hissed within her mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Team IGNIS:** Ivysaur ("Basil" Lv16), Golbat ("Kro" Lv22), Pikachu(?) (Lv?)  
>  **Team TERRA:** Squirtle ("Squirty" Lv13), Metapod ("Petal" Lv8), Nidoran(F) ("Ranne" Lv10)  
>  **Team HANA:** Charmander ("Emma" Lv15), Kakuna ("Mel" Lv9)


	15. Cerulean, the Floral Lagoon City

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ignis and Terra checks out the monthly two-days Water Festival.

"So," Ignis began as she looked around, "this is Cerulean City, huh?"

The city, like Pewter Town, looked far more active than its game counterpart. Granted, it was still somewhat lacking, but there were more houses than she recalled (assuming she remembered the layout correctly) and definitely more people than she expected there'd be. She figured it was natural anyways, since for convenience Pokémon games always had rather small... 'cities'.

Speaking truthfully, most of the 'cities' she encountered as a game were something she'd consider more as 'villages'. But now, as her reality, she understood once more that these were in fact cities, and not villages. Then again, she had no idea what the difference was.

"Yup. The Floral Lagoon City," Terra said.

Ignis blinked. "The what in the who now?"

"The Floral Lagoon City! That's what most people say is the city's nickname," the brunette informed. "Although I think more officially it's called 'the town of bursting water'.

 _The hell? I never heard of this crap,_ the her friend thought. "I... I see..."  _Well, maybe it's because I'm not too interested in locations that I didn't notice this stuff._ "Oh, look. A cotton candy stand. Neat." She went over and pulled some coins from her wallet. "Two please."

"Got it!"

Terra stared. "One for me too?"

"Yep. They're good stuff."  _Not that I'd know..._ Ignis thought. Back in her world, sometimes her school would host festivals or events as well, and in almost all of them cotton candy were a commonly sold treat. Her pride prevented her from going to get any in front of her family or friends, however, as... well, it seemed like something only childish people and children would enjoy, despite the fact that all her friends easily bought the sweet treat.

Of course, that was ages ago. This was now.

They waited some seconds, then gladly received it from the person behind the stand. "Thanks, mister," Terra said as Ignis spotted something else and ran to check it.

The man smiled. "No problem. Go enjoy the Water Festival with your lady over there!"

"I... she's not... ehehe..." the brunette muttered, once again turning slightly red. Ignis suddenly quickly came back, however, and pulled her by the arm.

"Terra, come look! It's a Squirtle keychain!"

"O-oh, a Squirtle keychain, huh?" She looked to where Ignis brought her and smiled. "Heh, just like Squirty."

"...ah, we forgot to get out Pokémon," Ignis suddenly said.

Terra shrugged. "I'm pretty sure it'd take a bit longer."

"Yeah, but at Pewter City it didn't take that long as well. This time I even took a nap..."

"...well, we could always go back to get them later."

Ignis mused her options. Eventually she thought it would be fine- they could bring their Pokémon here again this evening, perhaps. And maybe Hana too. "...sure! We should enjoy all this stuff for now, shouldn't we?" she said cheerfully.

"...heehee. Iggy, you're kinda like a child right now."

"A-am I?" Ignis said, stopping her excitement.  _D-did I get too excited?_ "S-sorry, I, uh-"

Terra put a finger to her lips. "No, no, it's fine. I think you're most adorable when you're being honest, Iggy."

"I, uh... um?" She had no idea how to respond to that, but rather, felt embarrassed by both the compliment and her child-like excitement.  _But I mean, I never really took my time with festivals... but... uuuu..._ The two stared at each other, before laughing together. "W-well, I mean, okay then... it's embarrassing though..."

"Iggy, silly. Nothing to be embarr-"

"Whoa! A Starmie necklace!" Ignis interrupted upon spotting it at another stand. "Let's go check the price!"

Dragged around yet again, Terra stifled a laugh. "Oh, you're hopeless."

Time passed by rather quickly, but amidst the moment itself, it almost felt like it'd last forever. They went around looking at and enjoying so many things, the two were starting to lose track of the first few things. From various Pokémon-based accessories and charms, to funny parody masks, to colorful swimsuits, to public Pokémon battles- that were for fun, and not from conflicts, of course. At least they hoped so.

Somehow she even got to witness a battle between a Gyarados and a Dewgong. Her Pokédex was filling up with Pokémon pictures (but not the entries themselves) a lot faster than she expected.

To her surprise, there weren't only Kanto Pokémon that she saw being used by Trainers or others as a motif for accessories. Of course, only the real ones she saw were recorded into the Pokédex, so the masks and accessories didn't contribute to her Pokédex progress. Not that she cared much for that anyways.

"Oh, look! It's a Mudkip!" Ignis said as she spotted one playing with a young boy. "Hehe. I liek Mudkipz."

"You do?"

"...no, it's, uh... a meme... meh." Ignis blinked as she focused somewhere else.  _Does this world have the same memes as my world? Hmm._ "Say, how long does this festival last again?" she asked.

The brunette scratched her head. "I, uh... I'm not sure." She turned to a nearby person. "Excuse me, how long does this festival last again?"

"Hm?" The man blinked. "Well, this is the monthly Water Festival. It always last two days. You're new to Cerulean City, aren't you?" he asked.

Terra and Ignis faked their laughter. "H-haha, yeah, well... yeah."

"Well, that's great! Nice to meet you two. Do you need help navigating the city?"

"N-no, it's alright, we can manage," Ignis said. "It's not too hard to travel around, despite the crowd."

He laughed in return. "That's good to hear. Did you two perhaps come to challenge our Gym Leader?"

 _Gym Lea... oh yeah, Misty!_ Ignis quickly nodded. "Sort of! We also came here to heal our Pokémon and get away from Mt. Moon."

"Ooooh. Must be the Zubat, I'm assuming." The three shared another round of light laughter. When they ran out of topics to discuss, the man turned away. "Hmm... let's see, you see that building over there? You know what that is."

"Oh, it's the gym!" Terra said. "Isn't that great?"

"That's... next to the Pokémon Center," Ignis noted. "...how'd we miss that?"

"Haha. The good thing about that is you can go heal anytime before fighting with Misty, after clearing the other battles."

"Oooh, I see. That's good to know!"  _Of course, I already do that in the games,_ Ignis thought. "Well, thanks for the info. We'll be visiting the gym now!"

Terra blinked. "Eh, we are?"

"Wouldn't hurt to see inside, you know?" Ignis said.

"...uh, sure, okay." The two bowed to the stranger and headed towards the gym. "What about our Pokémon?" she asked.

Ignis smiled. "I just want to see the inside of the gym for now, I'll go get them later."

The two then neared the nearby Pokémon Center. On the way, Ignis looked at the house next to the healing facility, she spotted a familiar police officer. "Huh... wait, Officer Jenny?" she said, a bit too loudly.

Said woman noticed her and blinked. "Hello. Do you know me personally?"

"I, uh... no. No, not really."

Terra frowned. "Pretty sure I saw you at Pewter City too..." she said.

 _She was?_ Ignis thought.

The teal-haired officer chuckled. "Oh, no, you must be mistaken. That's probably my sister, the one stationed at Pewter."

"The big family gimmick again!?" Terra exclaimed. "First Nurse Joy and then you..."

 _Oh yeah, she's a huge family person too..._ Ignis recalled. It was definitely explored somewhere in the anime, she just couldn't recall put a finger to which season nor episode that was.  _But wait, what's she doing outside this house?_ Racking through her memories of the game, she then remembered there being a house that was robbed by a thief. "I-is something the matter with this house?" she asked.

The Cerulean Jenny mused over her thoughts. "Hmm... well, I'm not sure I want to dampen your spirits during the Water Festival, so..."

"Oh, it's alright," Ignis said. "We're travelling Trainers from outside, we just happened to stop by Cerulean City."

At that, the teal haired woman raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Trainers from outside, huh? I assume you might be pretty skilled then?"

Terra and Ignis exchanged glances. Then they smiled. "You've got nothing to worry about, miss!" the brunette said. "Iggy here is a great Trainer, I can guarantee!"

Officer Jenny brimmed with delight. "That's great to hear! I could honestly use some assistance right now," she began. "You see, recently someone from this household requested our aid. Apparently a burglar broke in and tried to steal things from their house."

Ignis nodded. "Uh huh..."  _Was it Team Rocket? I feel like it definitely was a Team Rocket event..._ she said in her mind, unable to remember any further. "...and you'd like me to help, as a Trainer with decent experience."

"It'd be helping me a lot, really." The woman sighed. "So far, nobody's came outside yet, so I could only hope for the best and not anything grim."

"I'm pretty sure you having a gun is terrifying enough to stop any thief though," Terra said.

Officer Jenny frowned. "True, but... there's no way someone'd resort to thievery without having their own Pokémon. And I'd really hate to shoot innocent Pokémon that just so happened to have fallen to the wrong hands..."

"...same here," Ignis said. "Don't worry, officer! I'll beat the fellow black and blue! You can rest assured, maybe stand guard in case things go wrong." Her fists tightened with excitement- she was going to have another battle again, something she honestly enjoyed.

"Aright then, Miss... Iggy?" Officer Jenny asked.

Ignis sighed and glared at Terra, before turning back to Jenny. "It's actually Ignis, but that's okay. I'm heading inside now!" she said and slowly walked inside the house.

Terra blinked. "I'll stay here, I guess..." she said. Then Officer Jenny and Terra stood silently, awaiting any sort of noise from inside. Eventually, something occurred to Terra. "Wait, don't you officers have your own Pokémon too?" she asked. "If I remembered correctly, Growlithe..."

The Cerulean Officer Jenny laughed nervously. "W-well, um... I might have left my Pokémon at home today, seeing as it  _is_ a festival period..."

"...uh huh."

"And, well, I've requested backup to bring my Growlithe to me for now, but nobody has shown up yet..."

"...I, uh, see."

More silent seconds passed by, before something else struck her mind. "Oh crap!" Terra screamed.

Officer Jenny turned to her, surprised. "W-what is it?"

"Our... we forgot to retrieve our Pokémon from Nurse Joy!" the brunette exclaimed.

The teal-haired policewoman stared at the brunette.

"...what."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Team IGNIS:** Ivysaur ("Basil" Lv16), Golbat ("Kro" Lv22), Pikachu(?) (Lv?)  
>  **Team TERRA:** Squirtle ("Squirty" Lv13), Metapod ("Petal" Lv8), Nidoran(F) ("Ranne" Lv10)  
>  **Team HANA:** Charmander ("Emma" Lv15), Kakuna ("Mel" Lv9)


	16. Rockety-Doo, Executive Ignis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ignis confronts her third Team Rocket grunt.

Ignis blinked. There was a huge hole on the walls of the house. Two scared adults lay somewhere nearby, shivering together. "O-oh, thank the gods! A-are you part of the police!?"

"I, uh... kind of?" Ignis said. She was technically siding with the police officers right now, so... it counted. "Here to beat the dude black and blue. Is he inside the hole?" she asked.

"Y-yes! Please, go after him! He stole a valuable item from us!"

The black-haired heroine scratched her head. "Well... sure, okay." She walked into the hole.

Which lead outside. To the backyard of the house.

 _...right. Not a cave._  She definitely saw the outside from the hole.  _Why'd I think it was a cave?_

She stopped walking. A member of a certain criminal organization was leaning against the fence, looking at the waters of the city, in a somewhat... cringe-filled manner. She winced.  _Is he pretending to be enjoying a smoke and the view?_  She couldn't blame him, if she stole something she'd try to look innocent when outside too. Of course, the man's uniform didn't exactly help him.

A Machop and Drowzee stood next to him, also trying to... 'enjoy' the view.

Ignis blinked.  _Hey, couldn't I get their images in the Pokédex now, actually?_  And so she did that.

Then she grinned.  _Oh well. Sorry, dude. A girl's gotta do her job._

She reached for her Pokéballs...

...she reached for her Poké...balls...?

She couldn't grab anything.  _What the fuck? Where's my...!_

 _The Pokémon Center. I didn't retrieve them yet!_  She gulped.  _This is_ not  _good..._

The girl began slowly backing out. Confronting any Trainer without any Pokémon prepared would be pretty stupid, especially when they're a criminal, too.

Just as she thought she'd be able to get away safely, the Drowzee sharply turned around, immediately spotting her.  _Crap-_

" _Drooowww!_ " it screeched, causing its Trainer and the Machop to also turn towards her.

"Oh for fuck's sake-"

"W-Who the hell are you!?" the Rocket grunt exclaimed.

Ignis raised her hands in the motion a criminal would after being cornered. "W-wait, wait. I, I do not have any Pokémon with me. I, uh, come with no intention of harming you."

The man growled. "I said, who the hell are you!?" he asked once more.

 _Crap... I wonder if I can fool him._  "I'm... uh, I'm here to notify you of an, uh, update." She blinked.  _No, I sound way too nervous._

"W... what's that supposed to mean?" he asked.

She cleared her throat, and mustering her vision of a scary face, glared at him. "What do you  _think_  I mean?" she growled with a fake annoyed tone.

The man slowly widened his eye. "Y-you... an executive in disguise!?" he exclaimed.

 _Fucking brilliant!_  she screamed in her head. She had him fooled. "I'm... on an important mission here, so I can't afford to get too much attention. However, I'm also to notify any nearby Rocket members of an important update."

He gulped. "Y-yes ma'am!" he exclaimed and saluted.

Ignis nodded. Now...  _What the hell should the update be?_  she wondered. If she made up something completely unbelievable, she'd obviously be found out as a fake. That's why she knew she had to come up with something reasonable.  _Let's see... they like stealing Pokémon, they might be interested in legendary Pokémon... they also like money... uh?_  Nothing specific she could come up with.  _Hmm... time to pull up something good._ "Are you aware of the Pokémon Mew?"

The man tensed. "N... not fully, ma'am. But I've heard of the legends that it's the ancestor to all Pokémon."

 _Oh yeah, that._  "This is a secret amongst most of our organization, but the higher-ups have previously managed to get their hands on the DNA of such an important Pokémon," she said to the awe of the grunt.  _Well, at least that was kinda how the manga went, right?_  "We've attempted to clone it, but our project has become something much better... we're trying to create our own Pokémon, but much stronger and powerful than Mew itself!"  _Yeah, that's exactly how it went, I'm sure of it._

"I-is that even possible!?" the grunt asked.

"It is, indeed. And now, I'd like to happily announce that the project is almost at its fruition!"

The Rocket grunt was now amazed, and if anything, definitely fooled by her facade. "T-that's amazing! Does that mean that we're one step closer to taking over Kanto?"

 _Huh? I thought their goal was simply to make as much money as possible,_  Ignis thought.  _Maybe these grunts are more ambitious than I thought..._  "E-even better! With proper control and management, we might be able to take over the world!"

"That's certainly great news!" the grunt said. "Truly, the world we all deserve to rule is about to become reality!"

Ignis blinked.  _Uhhh, right. Delusional people._  "That said, we are still hoping for, uh, nothing to go wrong with the finishing touches on this powerful cloned Pokémon. In the meanwhile, all the grunts are to finish their current duties and... immediately return to our base, post-haste."  _What city were they from again? It... Silph Co... something._  Ignis mentally cursed her memory span, but decided to dismiss it for now.

The grunt saluted again. "R-roger, ma'am!"

"That'll be all. Continue with your... whatever you were doing," Ignis said and turned around.  _Alright, perfect chance to escape!_

"A-ah, wait, ma'am!" the grunt said. She froze. "I'm actually, um... in the process of escaping. I don't suppose you...'d mind helping me out?" he said sheepishly.

She paled.  _Motherfucking hell._  She slowly turned around. "Ahh... like I said, I, uhm, am not armed with Pokémon right now due to... disguise reasons," she said. The grunt sighed, visibly disappointed.  _I hope this doesn't make him suspicious of me... maybe I should help a bit?_  "However, seeing as you're an adult, I'm sure you'd know how to swim. The water Pokémon around here shouldn't be too dangerous."

"I-is that so...?" The man glanced at the nearby river. He gulped. "I- I guess I can manage..."

"Oh, hold on." Ignis cleared her throat. "It's always better to do some exercise before you swim, so just do some light exercise before you make your escape."  _Can't have you disappearing immediately now..._  she thought.

The grunt saluted. "I- I see! Thank you very much, ma'am!"

Ignis then made her way back into the house. The scared couple saw her and their eyes widened. "H-how did it go!?" they asked.

She sighed. "Well, uh... for now, he should still be there. He's not going anywhere yet, but we better hurry."

They blinked. "W-weren't you here to defeat that man?" the wife asked.

Ignis scratched her head sheepishly. "I... kinda realized I forgot my Pokémon at the Pokémon Center. Officer Jenny's outside though, I'll quickly go get her."

"Oh... o-okay."

The ravenette walked outside the house, where the teal-haired girl and her friend were waiting. "Hey."

"I-Iggy! You're alright!" Terra exclaimed.

"I'm surprised and curious, but that can wait. What's the status?" Officer Jenny asked.

Ignis sighed. "I... had to trick him into thinking I'm a Team Rocket executive..." she muttered.

"Eh."

"T-Team Rocket?" Terra said. "Here? Again!?"

Officer Jenny cleared her throat. "Did you... uh, at least confirm what he stole?"

"Oh. Uh... oh. No. I, uh, forgot about that while faking myself," Ignis said. "But he's probably still there, I think I managed to stall him shortly." Pointing to the house, she prepared to head to the Pokémon Center. "Officer, you go capture him with your Pokémon for now. I'll go get my Pokémon right away!"

Terra and Office Jenny blinked. "...s-sorry, I, uh, can't do that, I'm afraid," the woman said.

"Huh."

She looked away, grinning sheepishly. "I might have... also left my Pokémon today."

Ignis blinked.  _Wow, useful you are,_  she thought.  _...wait, I'm in the same boat here..._  "Well... go stall him with your gun for now, maybe?"

"Don't worry, Iggy," Terra interrupted. "I called Hana's phone earlier. She should be coming with our Pokémon really soon."

"I'm already here," Hana suddenly said, standing behind her and the officer, both who lightly yelped and jumped away. "S-sorry."

Ignis snickered. "You two didn't notice her at all, huh?"

"S-shut up! Even you didn't see her coming!" Terra exclaimed.

"Uh, no, I was facing your way, I saw her clear as any other day."

Officer Jenny cleared her throat again. "A-anyways. You brought Miss... Ignis? You brought her Pokémon here, am I right?" she asked.

The blonde nodded. "Here's your Ivysaur, Miss Ignis. And your Golbat. And your Pikachu's here," she motioned to her head, which Pikachu was resting on. It rolled its eye and jumped off, landing near Ignis' legs. "As for Miss Terra, here's your Squirtle... Metapod... and... Nidoran. Female."

"...oh, uh, thanks," the brunette said.

The two took their respective Pokéballs and gripped them. "Alright, I'm ready for some action!"

"Sure, Miss Rocket Executive," Officer Jenny said. Ignis turned slightly red as she and her childhood friend snickered, to Hana's confusion.

"Miss Ignis is a what now?" the blonde asked.

Ignis sighed. "I, uh, had to pretend to be an executive Rocket member so he wouldn't kill me, since I didn't have my Pokémon..."

"Ohhh." Hana blinked. "...let's go, Miss Executive!"

"Oh, not you too..." the girl groaned. The group slowly entered the house and exited through the hole, finding the Rocket grunt performing warm-ups. He spotted them and frowned. "Uh... hi," Ignis muttered.

The grunt stared. Then he stared at the other girls of the group. "...well, fuck." he said. "They got you too, huh?'

"What was that?" Officer Jenny asked.

"N-nothing," the grunt growled. "Stay away from me this instant!" He flashed a smile to Ignis, who could immediately tell what he was thinking.  _I'll show you I can get away from this situation myself, ma'am!_  he thought confidently.

She nervously nodded.  _This guy still believes my crap!?_

Officer Jenny cleared her throat. "I regrettably do not have any Pokémon on hand right now, but if you do not stop, this lady will not hesitate to beat you, you crook!" she said.

Both sides blinked.  _Uh?_ the grunt thought.

Ignis flashed an apologetic look.  _I'm sorry, I fooled you._

However, that didn't seem to get through. Instead, the Rocket grunt suddenly seemed more... determined? His fists tightened.  _Don't worry, ma'am! It's my fault you got involved during your mission. I don't mind if you capture me- I'll find a way to escape myself!_ he thought with a nod.

 _...I feel like there's a misunderstanding here,_ Ignis thought. "R-right. Let's battle this out, shall we?"

"I'm not going to let myself be caught easily! Machop, go!" he commanded. His Machop lunged forward with a battle cry, its arms prepared to perform some... wacky martial arts.

Ignis clicked open a Pokéball. "Krow, Air Cutter!" she said. The bat plopped out and immediately flew up high, out of the Machop's reach, and flapped its wings violently. Slightly visible blades of air flew towards the Machop, who shrieked and ran around trying to dodge. "Supersonic him! Or her!"

Krow quickly followed up its aerial attack with spitting out ring waves, which stopped the Machop's movements immediately upon contact, leaving it staggering with a headache. "M-Machop!"

"Now, Air Cutter again!" Ignis shouted. Krow flapped its wings once more, several air blades slashing the Machop. Being a Flying-type attack, it dealt heavy damage against the Fighting-type Pokémon, and the bat being extraordinarily high-leveled for someone at Ignis' current progress of her adventures, it was an easy victory for them.

"M-Machop, no!" The grunt recalled his Fighting-type and pointed forward. "Drowzee! I'm counting on you!"

"Hmm... Psychic beats Poison, don't they?" Ignis muttered. "Come back, Krow!" Recalling the bat, she was about to summon Basil, but remembered that Ivysaur were part-Poison as well. "...Pika...chu! Thunder Shock!" she quickly said, as the rodent rolled its eyes but prepared to battle regardless.

"Disable!" the Rocket grunt shouted. Pikachu immediately found itself unable to shoot electricity out of its body.

" _P-pika pi!_ " it hissed.

Ignis bit her lips. "Gah, not good... Q-Quick Attack, then!" she said.  _I hope it has this move... I should check its moves soon._ Her (temporary) Pikachu nodded and charged itself up, then ramming into the Drowzee.

" _D-drow!_ "

" _Pika!_ "

The girl pointed forward. "One more time! Quick Attack!"

Without giving the Drowzee or the Rocket grunt a chance to retaliate, Pika mercilessly slammed the Drowzee against the fence. It fell unconscious almost immediately after, to the Rocket grunt's dismay.

"D-Drowzee! Gah, such skills... truly an executive...!" the man grunted.

 _Uh, not really?_ Ignis thought.  _That was rather too short, actually..._

Officer Jenny, noting the man doesn't have anymore unused Pokéballs, raised her gun. "That's the end of it, now. Put your hands up!"

"O-okay, okay!" the grunt yelled. "I surrender, so have this thing I stole!" he said and took out a familiar disk. "It's TM28, Dig..."

 _What does Team Rocket need with that move?_ Ignis wondered. Then she was given the disk. "...wait, me?"

"Yeah, you defeated me after all," the grunt said. His eyes spoke differently, though-  _Bring the disk to our headquarters, we must finish our task at all costs._

 _...does he still think I'm an executive?_ "Uh, right. Thanks, dude."

"Well, that'll have to be returned to the rightful owners," Officer Jenny said. "Miss Ignis, I'm trusting that you'll do that for me?"

"Uh, sure." The grunt stared at her. Ignis winked to him. He smiled with relief.  _Wait, did he take that as a wink of assurance, or a wink of deception...?_

"We'll be going now. Thanks for your assistance," the teal-haired woman said and walked away, followed by a cuffed Rocket grunt.

Ignis, Terra and Hana waved to the officer, before exchanging glances. "...so what're we going to do now?" Terra asked.

"Well, first I'm returning this, of course," Ignis said, waving the disk.

Hana smiled. "Truly a benevolent woman you are, Miss Ignis."

"Uh... right." _Sometimes I forget that everyone here is kinda off in the head._

Terra blinked. "...truly an executive."

She received a groan. "Ugh, stop that..."

The brunette and blonde chuckled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Team IGNIS:** Ivysaur ("Basil" Lv16), Golbat ("Kro" Lv22), Pikachu(?) (Lv?)  
>  **Team TERRA:** Squirtle ("Squirty" Lv13), Metapod ("Petal" Lv8), Nidoran(F) ("Ranne" Lv10)  
>  **Team HANA:** Charmander ("Emma" Lv15), Kakuna ("Mel" Lv9)


	17. Cerulean Gym, Let's Go!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ignis and the others challenge Cerulean Gym.

The three walked out the house, bowing out of respect as the couple inside waved.

"Huh," Terra voiced. "That old couple sure were kind, letting us have the disk anyways."

"And I certainly thought they'd need it too, seeing as it was something important to them," Hana added.

Ignis shrugged. "Well, I mean... to be fair, they  _did_  just want their Diglett to learn Dig, which they'd be able to learn eventually," she said.  _More like, I'd be hella shocked if Diglett can't learn Dig... or if they don't already know how to dig,_  she thought. "But yeah, guess we'll be keeping TM28 for a while."

"Indeed, it seems so." They walked past the Pokémon Center, heading towards the city's gym. "What an evening, everyone's still celebrating.." the blonde noted to herself. "Speaking of which, how do TMs work again?" she asked.

"Huh?" Ignis stuttered.  _Damn, I don't know the answer to that._  "W-well, uh..."

"That's easy," Terra interrupted. "The Pokémon storage system in Pokémon Centers are able to read these disks and teach Pokémon new moves through brain waves and signals. Or something like that," she explained. "It's nothing harmful, really, and because these disks are... well, disks, it's also unlimited. Just as easily damaged as regular ones though."

 _Oh, is that how it works?_  Ignis thought.  _I guess the games had it easier for convenience's sake._

"Although I hear certain people have personal special devices that can read the disks, too, so to save the trouble of having to visit a Pokémon Center." She put her hand to her chin, trying to recall from her memories. "I think... I think Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny are one of such people... and maybe Gym Leaders and the Elite Four... ah, I can't remember."

"Special devices, huh... I see," Hana nodded. "That's pretty interesting, I find."

"...hm." Ignis stopped walking and took out her Pokédex.

"What's the matter, Iggy?:" Terra asked.

"...what if...?" She examined the device, searching for any odd button that she hasn't seen yet. Upon finding one on its side, she pressed it curiously. A slot shot out of the device, then unfolded itself into the size of a... disk. "Whoa."

"Huh. Is that... is that to put a disk in?" Hana asked.

"I... think so." Ignis placed TM28 onto the open slot, to which a flat surface slid out to protect the disk's top. She heard the sound of the disk spinning from within, and was almost reminded of her laptop from her world. The Pokédex lit up.

_'Scanning... scanning...'_

_'Disk scanned. Disk ID 28. Contains technique DIG.'_

_'Scanning nearby eligibility...'_

_'Scanning complete.'_

_'List of Pokémon eligible to learn DIG:'_

_'CHARMANDER, SQUIRTLE, PIKACHU, NIDORAN(F), PSYDUCK, POLIWHIRL, KRABBY.'_

Ignis blinked. Then she looked around- nearby unknowing Trainers were walking around with their respective Pokémon: a Psyduck, a Poliwhirl, and a Krabby. "Ah."

"Whoa, wait, the Pokédex can teach TMs too?" Terra asked. "Sweet! I didn't know that! Why didn't grandpa tell us anything about this, geez!"

"Well, it's not like we'd have been interested at the time of leaving," Ignis said. "But wow, so this is how it works, huh?" She contemplated over the mechanics for a while, before turning to her companions. "So, any of you want a Pokémon to learn Dig?"

"I-is that fine?" Hana asked. "It's yours after all..."

The ravenette scoffed. "Belongs to all of us now."

"But-"

"Because I said so. Now, your Charmander, Terra's Squirtle, Terra's Nidoran, or my Pikachu." She turned to Terra. "If you're sure about what you said, then we can use this disk as much as we want. Who wants to do it?"

"Hmm..." the brunette voiced. "I'm not sure about letting my Water-type turtle do some digging..."

Ignis turned to Hana. "And you? I think your Charmander is more suited to flying, once it... evolves."

"...so it grows wings, huh?" the blonde said. "Well, in that case... I'll have to decline."

"Hmm... right. Pikachu, how about you?" Ignis asked.

The Pikachu following her shook its head, uninterested.

"Huh. Then all we got is... your Nidoran, Terra."

Terra pressed her Pokéball and called out her Nidoran. "Ranne, what do you think?" she asked. "Would you be interested in learning DIg?"

The light-blue Nidoran cocked her head to its side, curious, before it let out a smile and a happy... roar? Small cry. Thing. That seemed to be a 'yes' or 'alright'. Ignis smiled. "Okay then. Tapping Nidoran then..." the girl pressed NIDORAN on her Pokédex screen, which changed.

_'Teach DIG to NIDORAN(F)?'_

_'YES or NO'_

"That's a yes," Ignis said. The Pokédex screen turned white, and made a weird noise- that of emitting signals. She watched as nothing happened, then looked to the her friend's Nidoran. "...uh. Nothing's happening."

"Well, of course not. We're just teaching her a new move, it's not like she'll perform it randomly now."

"...touché." The Pokédex screen returned to its dim lighting.

_'NIDORAN(F) learned DIG. Total: 5 moves.'_

_Oh? Not a maximum of four anymore?_  Ignis thought.  _Must be another game-only gimmick._  "And that's done with. What say we visit the Cerulean Gym now?"

"Eh, now?" Terra asked. "It's evening now though..."

"But it's not like you nor I did anything noteworthy today," Hana pointed out. "...well, I did even less today, if we were to talk more about that."

"Oh, shush."

Ignis grinned. "But you know what they say! The harder you work, the tastier meals are!"

 _I don't think I've ever heard that phrasing,_  Terra thought, _but I kinda know what you mean._  "But Iggy... wait, then that'll benefit only you."

"Oh, right." The ravenette rubbed her chin. "...how about you two battle the Trainers in there while I battle Misty?" she asked.

Terra and Hana exchanged glances. "Huh?"

* * *

"Cerulean Cape, hm?" a girl with bright orange hair murmured, pencil in her mouth. "Didn't know it was that sort of thing..."

She pulled the pencil out her mouth and wiped the non-sharp end, and placed it on the table.

"Well, guess I could keep that in mind." She chuckled to herself. "I could try inviting him there soon..."

Knocks on the door interrupted her daydream. "Uh, Miss Misty?" a voice called.

She growled. " _Lady_ Misty, please."

"Uh... right. Miss Misty, we've got guests looking for you."

 _I said Lady Misty!_ the girl retorted mentally. Realizing she didn't say it out loud, now seeming rather silent to her disciples, she cleared her throat. "R-right, um. Who are they?"

"Two of them are apparently from Pallet Town...?"

Misty's eyes widened. "Oh, they must be the ones Brock told me were coming!"  _Fucking asses, you're late!_ she screamed mentally. "...uh, tell them to wait, I'll be there soon."  _Thanks to them, I had to wait forever and missed the entirety of today's festival!_ Again, it wasn't said verbally.

"Right. Um. We'll do just that." Footsteps disappeared.

The Water-type expert sighed. "Golly, they sure took their time..."  _Way too long, too!_ she added in her mind. "Well, at least I'll get to do some exciting battles today, I suppose."

She opened the door and walked through the secret underground hallways, not even looking at the glass walls where various Water-type Pokémon were swimming around freely. Eventually reaching a dead end, the girl stood on a plate with a Pokéball symbol and pressed a button on the wall. Slowly, the area around her began rising as the ceiling spread apart for her.

Her head slowly appeared to the first floor of her gym. "Alright, I'm here now," she said begrudgingly.

"Wow, appearing from a hidden underground area..." Ignis muttered. "She's like a secret boss."

Misty stared. "...I just showed up and you're already whispering? Arceus, you are one rude girl." Sighing, she walked over to the trio. "Ignis, am I right?"

"Uh... yeah. That's me," Ignis replied.

Misty smiled. "It's been quite some time since I last saw you."

"And I'm also here!" Terra beamed.

"...oh! Terra! Nice to see you again too!" Misty chimed.  _Gah. Almost forgot who she was._

The brunette blinked. "...were you thinking of something rude just now?"

Laughing, the Water-type expert waved her hand around. "Whaaat? Of course not, that's stupid! I'd never do that..."  _Too sharp. These girls grow too fast._

"...she sure pauses a lot," Hana noted, slightly weirded out by Misty's lack of speech during her obviously rude thoughts.

"She's thinking something rude about us..." Ignis whispered to the group.

"A-anyways, you're here to challenge me, aren't you?" Misty asked. "Well, you're in luck! After having to  _painfully_ wait here  _through the festival_ for your arrival, I'm all fired up to battle!" she exclaimed and laughed brightly.

Ignis blinked. "...is she trying to tell me something?"

"I... think you should apologize first, Iggy..."

"Agree."

 _The hell?_ "Uh... sorry?"

Misty shrugged. "Well, can't be helped now. Let's get it started, shall we? Triple battle?"

Ignis shook her head. "Oh, uh, wait. We were thinkin-"

"By the way..." MIsty interrupted. "Do any of you so happen to have... Bug-type Pokémon?" she asked.

 _...huh?_ "I don't," Ignis said.  _Her bug phobia...'s a thing?_

"I do!" Terra said.

"So do I," Hana said.

"Well then..." Misty muttered and motioned for two nearby Trainers to come to her. "You two, you'll be battling my trainees here."

"...huh," all four- Terra and Hana and the two trainees- exchanged voices of confusion.

Misty snickered. "This is just to, uh, test you two. I'm pretty sure you two aren't interested in badges, but Ignis here probably is, so like, uh, yeah. Do your best," she said.

"...afraid of bugs?" Ignis asked.  _That should be an anime-thing though..._

"N-no!" Misty replied harshly. "I'm not afraid of no stupid b-bugs!"

 _Ah, she's afraid,_ the girl realized.  _Good ol' Misty. Heh._ "Well, I guess me and Misty'll watch the first match between you four, then?" she suggested. "I want to observe you two too, after all."

One of the trainees raised their finger. "...Misty and I. Not me and Misty. Misty and I."

 _I don't like this guy,_ the ravenette thought.

As to her suggestion, the Water-type expert shrugged. "Ah, sure, I don't mind. Quickly get it over with, though."

"Alright! The stage's all yours, Terra, Hana."

As the two VIPs went to sit at the sidelines to observe, Terra and Hana exchanged glance.

"...pleasure working together?" Hana asked, offering a handshake to the brunette.

Terra narrowed her eyes. "...right," she muttered. "Just don't mess anything up, I guess."

"Uh... sure..."

The two picked a Pokéball from their belts.

"Petal! / Mel!" they called their Pokémon out.

" _Kakkka!_ "

" _Mmmmmme..._ "

Misty immediately tensed. "Luis! Diana! Beat those sickos!"

The two trainees prepared their own respective Pokémon. "Horsea! / Goldeen!"

" _Hooorrrs!_ "

" _Glub glub deeeen!_ "

Ignis smiled. "Terra! Hana! Make sure you win!"

"Got it!" they said in unison. Terra then stared at her opponents. "They're definitely Water-types... Hana! Don't get distracted, okay?"

"I, uh... okay?" the blonde replied, unsure if she even seemed distract. Nevertheless, she had to focus properly indeed. "Mel! String Shot!" she said.

Her Kakuna did exactly that, parting its 'arms' and shooting a string of sticky substance. To her dismay, however, upon contact with water, the strings just... floated around. Not that it even touched her opponents, as they swam out of target before it reached them.

"Ah... the water...!" Hana said.

"Of course that'd happen!" Terra exclaimed. "Petal! Tackle!"

Her green Bug-type Pokémon rocked itself and threw its body towards the nearby Horsea. However, again, the Horsea swam out of the way, causing her Metapod to float alone on the surface of the pool. " _M-mmmmee..._ "

"Aah! Petal!" the brunette shrieked.

Misty blinked. "...you sure they're going to be okay?" she asked.

"...uh." Ignis was starting to get worried.  _More like, why didn't you call Squirtle, who'd get around with ease?_ She cupped her hands around her mouth. "Terra! Squirty can move around easily!"

Her friend's eyes widened. "I- I see! Hold on, Petal!" she said and recalled her Bug-type, to Misty's relief. She then called out her starter. "Squirty! Get in the water and start Tackling your opponents!"

" _Squirtle squirtle!_ " Nodding to her words, the Squirtle jumped into the pool and began swimming after the others. However... they were at equal speeds. " _S-squir..._ "

"Hnngg... it's not working...!" Terra whined.

"...I think Terra needs more experience first," Misty commented.

"Touché..." Ignis sighed.

Hana, however, rubbed her chin. "Hmm... what if..." she muttered. "Mel! Prepare to use lots of Poison Stings!" she said.

"P-prepare? What are you even saying?" Terra asked.

"Next up, Miss Terra! Please have Squirty wield my Mel and aim it towards the opponents!"

Terra stared. "...huh, that actually sounds pretty good! Squirty, do what she just said!"

" _Squirtle!_ "

" _Kkkkkak!_ "

The blonde's Kakuna jumped into the arms of the brunette's Squirtle, who then held the Bug-type with one arm like some sort of hitman. Then it began chasing the now-horrified Horsea and Goldeen around.

Ignis, Misty, and her two trainees, all blinked.

 _Um, what the hell?_ they thought collectively.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Team IGNIS:** Ivysaur ("Basil" Lv16), Golbat ("Kro" Lv22), Pikachu(?) (Lv?)  
>  **Team TERRA:** Squirtle ("Squirty" Lv13), Metapod ("Petal" Lv8), Nidoran(F) ("Ranne" Lv10)  
>  **Team HANA:** Charmander ("Emma" Lv15), Kakuna ("Mel" Lv9)


	18. Terra and Hana VS Luis and Diana

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Terra and Hana faces off against Swimmer Luis and Picnicker Diana.

The two Water-type users exchanged glances. Then they stared at Misty, who returned the stare equally dumbfounded.

 _Uhh, I know we refrained from attacking to measure their skills, but..._ Luis thought.

 _What the hell is up with this situation?_ Diana finished that thought.

The scene unfolding before them was that of a normal swimming pool being used wildly. Their opponents' Squirtle were using a Kakuna as a gun, shooting Poison Stings at their Horsea and Goldeen, both who didn't seem- no, they were definitely not thrilled at this sort of wacky development. The corner of their eyes turned to the trainees, seeking an actual order for once.

"A-alright, enough waiting around," Luis said. "Horsea! Leer!"

"Righ, Goldeen! Tail Whip!" Diana said.

The Horsea nodded and swam to a currently safe distance, then glared hard at the Squirtle and Kakuna duo. Squirty the Squirtle flinched a bit at the sudden hostile glare, although Mel the Kakuna barely even noticed due to its positioning, being used as a gun. Suddenly the Goldeen appeared out of nowhere and rubbed its tail against the two, to their shock.

 _Holy shit, a stack of two Defense-lowering moves,_ Ignis thought. "This won't be easy..."

"Of course not," Misty said. "My trainees have lots of experience, training with me, and I provide new tactics and lessons every week! They're strong!"

 _...every week? Not everyday?_ The ravenette left it at that.

"If that's how you're playing- Squirty! Tail Whip it back!" the brunette yelled. Squirty nodded and grabbed the Goldeen's tail as it tried to escape, rubbing its own tail against the fish Pokémon.

"Now, Mel! Poison Sting!" Hana added. Squirty menacingly aimed Mel at its captured Goldeen whilst wielding a wicked grin, and Mel shot its small needle at it.

 _Holy shit that Squirtle's face is terrible,_ the two trainees thought. "G-Goldeen! Flail!"

After several Poison Stings, apparently none of which inflicted it with the Poison status yet, the Goldeen started flailing around violently. Its tail slowly slipped loose from Squirty's hand, and the moment it succeeded- " _Deen!_ " it exclaimed and swam away to the Horsea's side.

"Horsea!" Luis side. "Smokescreen!"

" _Sea!_ " It spat out a ball of pitch black, which exploded into smoke the moment it touched Squirty and Mel. Then it and the Goldeen retreated to a safe distance, at an unknown location.

"Yikes, they're having trouble," Ignis noted. "...wait, Hana's Kakuna doesn't look so good..."

"It's still life that needs air," Misty said. "They're getting a bit too caught up in battling to realize that. You better help them out again."

Ignis blinked. "Oh crap. Hana! Mel needs to breathe too!"

The blonde's eyes widened. "O-oh! I see!"

"Squirty, get to the surface!" Terra yelled.

The turtle did so and held the bug up to allow it some air.

Luis and Diana grinned. "Horsea / Goldeen! Use Bubble / Peck!"

Suddenly, an ambush from the two Water-types happened. They jumped out from opposite sides of the pool, aiming their attacks at the two.

" _S-squirtle!_ " Squirty shrieked, throwing Mel into the air and diving back down.

"What the-"

"A-ah... M-Mel! String Shot!" Hana quickly improvised out of panic. Her Bug-type did so and, whilst spinning mid-air, shot out several strings that wrapped around the Horsea and Goldeen mid-air. "I, uh, p-p-pull them onto a surface!"

WIth two strings still attached to each oppoent, Mel twisted its body and pulled the two captured Pokémon onto the dry platforms of the battlefield. They struggled to bounce back into the water, but Mel suddenly spat more strings, wrapping them perfectly and gluing them to the platform.

"Alright! Now that's something!" Ignis cheered.

Terra pouted. "Guh... not bad, huh... But this is good enough! Squirty, get onto the surface and start using Bubble too!" she said.

Squirty nodded and jumped out the water onto the platform, and grinned wickedly again.

 _Dear heavens, it's that face again...!_ both trainees thought once more.

"G-Goldeen! Flail!" Diana said. The Goldeen tried, but to no avail.

"Darn, we can't hop back into the water..." Luis muttered as he witnessed what might as well as be Squirty's mad slaughtering of his Pokémon.

"Mel! Poison Sting at them too!" Hana said. "Poison status ought to come soon, I daresay!"

"Ooh, they finally got an advantage," Ignis said with relief. "Definitely needs to train more."

"Same here," Misty sighed. "Those two are forgetting another source of water they can use to wash the strings off themselves..."

"...oh." Ignis blinked. At any point in time, the trainees could have their Pokémon use a Water-type move to get rid of the strings, she realized. "They better hurry."

"Hey! You two!" Misty suddenly yelled. Luis and Diana blinked, exchanged glances, before nodding.

"You're cheap," Ignis said.

"You were helping your friends out too, get over it."

"Horsea!" Luis said. "Use-"

"DontlethimdowhateverTackle him!" Terra shouted. Her Squirtle ran towards the stuck Horsea and slammed into it. However, that force itself was enough to rip the string attached to the ground off and send the Horsea flying into the air, most likely going to fall into the pool again.

"O-oh no! Miss Terra!" Hana said.

"I know what I'm doing! Squirty, get in the pool and Tackle it again!"

Squirty nodded and quickly jumped into the pool, swimming rapidly underneath the mid-air Horsea and jumping out to Tackle it again. " _Squirtle!_ "

"And keep that up!" the brunette said.

Suddenly, Diana grinned. "Goldeen! Water Pulse on the Kakuna!"

The two trainers widened their eyes as the Goldene charged up a ball of water, then shot it at the Bug-type. Unable to move properly, Mel was struck by the water attack and fell into the pool, whilst the Goldeen's restraints were torn apart by the attack. The Goldeen quickly splashed back into the pool.

"There goes our chance of victory," Terra groaned. "Squirty! Finish it and help Mel!"

Squirty nodded and jumped out the water once more, slamming the Horsea far away into the walls of the gym, knocking it unconscious.

"Horsea, no!" Luis yelled. He recalled his Horsea back into his Pokéball, and called out a new Pokémon- "Shellder, it's your turn!"\

" _Shell shell!_ "

"Uh, forget that for now, go save Mel again!" Terra said.

"Too late for that!" Diana said. "Goldeen! Horn Attack!"

Her Goldeen rushed through the waters, aiming its horn at Hana's Kakuna.

"Mel!" Hana exclaimed as it was smacked out of the water, into the air.

"Aaahhh, she's done for," Misty said.

Suddenly, the Bug-type glowed. Whilst spinning mid-air, its shell slowly cracked apart something crawled out of the unstable cocoon. "W-what-" the four battling Trainers gasped.

"She's evolving!" Ignis exclaimed.  _But the battle's not even... evolution can happen mid-battle!?_ she thought, rather shocked by this discovery.

"Get her now, Diana!" Misty suddenly screamed frantically.  _Right, her bugphobia. ...insectophobia. ...whatever the term is._

"G-Goldeen! Water Pulse!"

The Goldeen charged a ball of water and shot it towards the evolving Bug-type. However, before it reached the Pokémon, the newly evolved Beedrill buzzed loudly and flew away from its shell, dodging the water attack. " _Bibibeeeee!_ "

"Hana!" Ignis shouted. "Your Beedril should know Twinneedle now!" she said.

Hana nodded. "I- I see! Mel, Twinneedle!" she commanded. Mel the now-Beedrill nodded and flew around rapidly, making it hard for the Goldeen to take aim. Then it aimed its two giant arm-lances and shot the needles at the fish. "I-it shot the needles!?" Hana exclaimed. Upon seeing the needles regrow rapidly on the bee's hands, she sighed with relief.

"Goldeen!" Diana called. It had been struck and, coupled with its depleted health from all the Poison Stings during its captivity, was knocked unconscious by the needles. She recalled her Goldeen, then fell to her knees. "S-sorry, Luis..."

"It's fine, I got this!" Luis exclaimed. "Shellder! Icicle Spear!" he yelled.

His Shellder scooped up a bit of water with its tongue, then encased itself within its shell. Then, when it opened once more, a giant ice shard suddenly spat out towards the bee.

Mel easily dodged it, however, and buzzed at the shell Pokémon.

Terra grinned. "Don't get distracted now! Squirty, Tackle!" she exclaimed.

"Tackle back!" Luis said.

The turtle and the shell jumped out the pool, smashing against each other.

"Mel! Twinneedle!" Hana said.

"Withdraw!" Luis retorted. The Shellder quickly shut its shells together, the needles barely scraping across the hard surface. "Water Gun!"

It aimed at the bee again, but once more it didn't land the target.

"Squirty, grab Shellder!" Terra yelled. The Shellder was caught off guard when Squirty appeared from behind, holding tight to its shell. "Now!"

Hana nodded. "Twinneedle again!"

"Shellder, no!" Luis screamed. The two needles were shot at the now defenseless Pokémon, who could do nothing but anticipate its-

" _Deerrr!_ "

And there it went.

"Shelldeeeeer!" Luis cried, recalling it into his Pokéball. "I'm so sorry, Miss Misty! We couldn't defeat them..."

"No, no, it's alright," Misty said as she descended to them. "It's good training for you two. Besides, you would've won if it weren't for Iggy here helping them," she reassured.

 _Why's she calling me Iggy too now?_ Ignis thought. "Not like there are rules against it."

"Touché," the Water-type expert said.  _But people don't usually do that anyways, assface._ "And as for you two..." she turned to Terra and Hana. "You two could use a little more practice, 'kay?"

"R... right," Terra nodded.

"I shall train more, then," Hana said.

"Now." Misty smiled at Ignis. "It's our turn now, isn't it?" she asked.

Ignis grinned. "Now we're talking! Let's go!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Team IGNIS:** Ivysaur ("Basil" Lv16), Golbat ("Kro" Lv22), Pikachu(?) (Lv?)  
>  **Team TERRA:** Squirtle ("Squirty" Lv15), Metapod ("Petal" Lv9), Nidoran(F) ("Ranne" Lv10)  
>  **Team HANA:** Charmander ("Emma" Lv15), Beedrill ("Mel" Lv10)


	19. Splashdown with Misty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ignis battles Misty, the entomophobic gym leader.

"Right, it's our turn to battle now," Misty said. "Take your stance."

"Gotcha," Ignis replied and took one side of the battlefield. "Prepare to be defeated, Misty!"

 _Lady Misty,_ the woman mentally corrected. "Whatever you say. My first Pokémon'll be Staryu!"

She threw her Pokéball and called forth a familiar star-shaped Pokémon, one that Ignis had to admit she always thought as an alien lifeform. It emitted a weird noise, with its core flashing.

"Oooh, a Staryu," Terra said from the sidelines. "Haven't seen that since Grandpa brought one to the lab years ago."

"Oh man, Staryu." Ignis threw a Pokéball to the battlefield. "Krow! We're going with you first!" she said.

The bat Pokémon appeared from the device's red light, and it screeched with power. " _Battt!_ "

"Staryu, let's start with a simple Water Gun!" Misty said. Her Staryu nodded and aimed its core at the bat, blasting water at it.

 _Where's the water even coming from in the core?_ Ignis shook her head as Krow easily dodged the attack. "Krow, Screech!"

Krow let out another screech, this time releasing sound waves that surrounded the Star Shape Pokémon. Misty smiled. "Decreasing defenses from the start, huh? Basic but good tactic."

 _It just makes it faster for full violence combat,_ Ignis thought.

"Staryu, Swift!" the Water-type expert said. Staryu shot multiple stars from its core this time, all of which headed towards the bat.

"Dodge again, Krow!" Ignis said. But as the bat moved out of the stars' way, they turned around and struck it from the back. "Wha... homing!?" Ignis exclaimed.  _Wait... Swift! An always-hitting move!_ She recalled how much she hated that type of attack, but pushed it to the back of her mind for now. "Well, I'm still alive at least. Krow! Absorb!"

Krow opened its mouth wide and suddenly shot dark shadowy vines from its mouth, wrapping around Misty's Staryu. Purple poison-like orbs began flying out from Staryu's body into the Golbat's body.  _The hell, that's creepy,_ Ignis thought.

"W-wait, it knows Absorb!?" Misty shrieked. "Staryu! Rapid Spin, and Recover!"

 _Oh yeah, Grass-type moves are super effective._ Ignis watched as the Staryu spun itself rapidly, tearing the shadowy vines to shreds. Its core then glowed, and then its body glowed light green as it seemed to have been revitalized. "Wow, healing..." She also hated healing moves. "Confuse Ray!"

Her Golbat spat out a bright yellow orb towards the Staryu. Upon contact, it exploded, and the Staryu began staggering around.

"Oh, man. Staryu! Snap out of it and use Psywave!"

 _A Psychic-type move!? Not good!_ Ignis threw her hand. "Krow! Absorb again!"

Repeating its Grass-type attack, Krow began leeching the health of the Star Shape Pokémon who was still staggering around. It tried to aim its appendages towards the bat, but ended up too weak to even raise an end. Within seconds, its core faded. "A-ahh, Staryu..." Misty sighed and recalled her Pokémon. "You did well. My next one's even better though!"

"Can't be that bad," Ignis noted.

"I'm sure Miss Ignis can win the next round too!" Hana said.

"Oh, you'll see! Starmie!" Misty called. A familiar star popped out of its Pokéball, this time with ten appendages, five on the front and five attached behind. "Rain Dance!"

The ten-armed Mysterious Pokémon jumped around attempting to do weird poses. Rain clouds began forming at the top of the gym, heavy droplets of water pouring everywhere.

"Oh, geez. That's a turn wasted!" Ignis said. "Screech!" Once more, Krow let out a loud screech and sent soundwaves at the star organism.

"Doesn't matter!" Misty said. "Hydro Pump!"

 _Wait, what?_ Ignis blinked as an extremely powerful torrent of water shot at her bat Pokémon with unbelievable speed, striking Krow before it even properly registered her words. "Holy shit. What the hell!?" she shrieked.

Terra and Hana jumped. "T-that was really fast!"

"Rain Dance, girl," the Cerulean Gym Leader said. "Powers up Water-type moves!" she said.

Shocked, Ignis gulped.  _I guess powering up no longer applies to only power, but speed and effectiveness as well..._ she thought.  _That was so fast I didn't even Starmie charging anything up..._ "You alright, Krow?"

" _G-gollbat!_ " it replied with some level of enthusiasm.

"Gotcha. We could use some health right now- Absorb!" Ignis said.

Her Golbat nodded and spat the shadowy absorption vines from its mouth again.

Misty grinned. "That's the end for you there. Hydro Pump!" she commanded again.

Ignis blinked.  _Huh. Again?_ Within less than even a second, the powered up move smashed Krow into a wall, shredding all its shadowy vines to dust particles. "Holy shit, this really is bad."

After the onslaught of water disappeared, Krow fell to the ground, eyes spinning like the common comedic effect she was used to seeing in media. " _G-goll...._ "

 _Yikes._ Ignis recalled her Pokémon. "Alright then... Pikachu! How about you?" she asked and looked behind her.

The Pikachu who chose to follow her was sleeping soundly, letting out a yawn as if to spite her.

"...wow," Terra said. Hana focused on trying to stop herself from laughing.

"...fun Pikachu," Misty noted.

"Guh. Never mind it," Ignis said. She threw her other Pokéball to the field. "Basil! Counting on you!" she said.

" _Saur!_ " the Ivysaur chirped as it landed in front of the pool.

"Vine Whip!"

Basil stretched its vines out from its bulb and slowly aimed for the star organism.

"Rapid Spin!" Misty said. Her Starmie then- to the surprise of Ignis- spun its front body with intense speed. The vines were immediately shredded upon attempting contact, to the dismay of the ravenette and her starter Pokémon. "How's that?"

 _Ouch, not the vines again..._ Ignis thought. "It can spin its front body...?"

"It can spin its back body," Misty explained, "but if you have it stand on its back body, the front body's the one spinning."

Ignis blinked. "Oh. Science stuff. Right." She shook her head. "Hang in there, Basil! Leech Seed!"

Nodding, Basil initiated its next attack and spat several seeds towards the Starmie. Again, they were destroyed by its Rapid Spin attack, but suddenly-

"...huh!?" Misty voiced as her Starmie flinched. "Why's there purple spray in those seeds?"

"Basil's laced the seeds with Poison Powder," Ignis explained with her own smug grin. "Put your opponents to disadvantage as soon as possible! That's our style!" she said.

The Water-type expert blinked.  _Wait, that idiot warned me about this..._ she thought, recalling a phone call from Brock who told her about an approaching face from the past. "Well, it takes time to lose to poison anyways, so you'll have to survive long if you want to win!" she said. "Starmie! Tackle!"

"Full-on physical violence! Basil, Take Down!" Ignis countered.

The two Pokémon leaped towards each other, its bodies prepared to smash. To Ignis' surprise, her Pokémon was sent flying back, however. " _S-saur!_ "

"What the...?" she muttered.

Misty grinned. "My Starmie's body is still harder than normal, Ignis. Rock hard, I daresay."

 _Starmie can learn harden?_ "Enjoy it while it last. Basil! Leech Seed again!"

"Not on my watch! Dodge them, Starmie!" Misty said.

The star jumped to its side as the seeds were shot at it.

"Good! Now, Hydro Pump!" she added.

Ignis threw her hands once more. "Solar Beam!"

"Wait, what?" Misty almost jumped when the water blast struck the Ivysaur safely. No such thing as a Solar Beam being shot to counter it. She blinked. "Uh, what was that?"

Ignis shrugged. "I got a bit heated up."

"...well, whatever!" Misty pointed to where the Ivysaur was. "This is your defeat!"

"Not yet! Vine Whip!" Ignis commanded. To the Water-type expert's surprise, vines slivered up from within the pool. "Get it!" The vines quickly reached for her Starmie, wrapping it tightly to prevent it from using Rapid Spin to free itself.

"W-what!?"

"Basil! Leech Seed with Sleep Powder!" Ignis said. Her Ivysaur spat more seeds at the Starmie, and it now being restraint, could do nothing as the seeds burrowed itself into its body, more vines growing around it. At the same time, its core began fading due to the sleep powder infused within the seeds, causing it to lose consciousness. "That's my win!" Ignis exclaimed.

Misty narrowed her eyes. "You're cheap. Sneaking vines into the pool and distracting me with a false alarm Solar Beam? You're just... cheap."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Ignis snickered. Basil smiled in turn, letting go of the defeated Starmie and skipping over to its Trainer's legs, affectionately rubbing its head against her. "There, there, good boy... girl... damn, I forgot the gender."

Sighing, MIsty recalled her Starmie. "Well, I'm not so petty as to dismiss my loss," she muttered.  _What a brat! I demand a rematch!_ Instead, she walked over to the Trainer. "Oh well, here's your Cascade Badge. And here's, uh, TM... TM03, I believe. Water Pulse? Yeah." She handed over said items to the ravenette.

"Oh, sweet. Water Pulse... got nothing for it right now," Ignis muttered. "Thanks, Misty. That was a fun match."

"Same here," the expert replied.  _It'd be more fun if I won! I want to win! I want to winnnn!_ She looked outside the gym's windows. "Anyways, it's almost night now. I'd suggest you rest up at the Pokémon Center, it's dangerous to travel at night."

"Got it. Terra, Hana!" Ignis called. "We're resting for the rest of the day!"

"Uh, sure," Terra said. "It's already night anyways but okay..."

"It's good that we're not traveling at night too," Hana said. "The darkness is just terrible."

Ignis grinned. "Whatevs you say, girls."  _Afraid of the dark, huh?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Team IGNIS:** Ivysaur ("Basil" Lv18), Golbat ("Kro" Lv22), Pikachu(?) (Lv?)  
>  **Team TERRA:** Squirtle ("Squirty" Lv15), Metapod ("Petal" Lv9), Nidoran(F) ("Ranne" Lv10)  
>  **Team HANA:** Charmander ("Emma" Lv15), Beedrill ("Mel" Lv10)


	20. RattattattattattaBill

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ignis and the others continue their journey and meet a certain researcher/scientist.

Refreshed and ready to continue their journey, the trio had walked north into Route 24 and Route 25. Various Trainers had met their eyes and enforced their unspoken law of challenging all who they made eye contact (Ignis promptly wondered if they ever went home, but it turns out everyone just so happened to be training and searching for Pokémon there around the same time).

To Ignis' dismay, she did most of the battling. Terra wasn't much of a battler, it seems, but she did attempt to train against two people- one win, one loss. Also wild Pokémon battles. Her Squirtle and Metapod eventually evolved into a Wartortle and a Butterfree, respectively.

Hana tried harder to get more experience with battling, having faced off against four Trainers. Her Charmander evolved into a Charmeleon, so that was also a plus.

Ignis, meanwhile, had to deal with a total whopping of nine Trainers. Granted, her Golbat and Ivysaur were the most helpful and most powerful she has, but the Pikachu that follows her occasionally helps as well.

But those aren't important. Now, she had a new goal. Assuming nothing had changed and the journey would still follow the game's formats, Ignis recalled one of the most wild NPC was to the north of Cerulean City. The scientist who accidentally fused- or something- with a Pokémon in his own house.

 _Bill_. Not Bill Nye, duh- but  _Bill._

If anyone's going to be dragged into the world of Pokémon, Bill's house was a  _must_ , she figured.

After all, there's no way any player hasn't ever wanted to become a Pokémon themselves. It was almost like that weird fourth season of Digimon, where the humans could become humanoid Digimon- except fantasizing yourself as a skillful Pokémon was totally cooler, at the time.

 _...wait, does it make you a furry if you used to imagine yourself as a powerful humanoid Pokémon?_ Ignis suddenly thought.

"Oh look, there it is," Terra said, interrupting her internal question and pointing to an approaching house. It seemed like quite a normal house from the front, but standing from the side the otherworlder could see many giant wires and mechanical stuff attached to the back of the house. "The house of the famous researcher Bill."

Ignis blinked.  _Oh yeah, he's famous. Everyone would know him._ "Yep. I feel like dropping by for a visit and seeing what he's up to."

"M-Miss Ignis!" Terra suddenly said and pointed. "W-what is that Pokémon over there?"

The ravenette looked at the pointed direction. "That's... uh, an Abra. Psychic-type, teleports a lot, stuff."

Hana gulped. "Psychic-type... I heard Psychic-types are powerful! I think... I think I'll try to capture it!"

Ignis and Terra exchanged glances. "Uh, right. You do that- you don't mind if we check out Bill's place in the meanwhile, do you?" the otherworlder asked.

The blonde shook her head. "That will be fine by me." She quickly turned to the Abra and started preparing for battle. "Mel! Bug-types are effective, so let's battle!"

" _Drzzzzz!_ "

"Well, that's that," Ignis said. "Let's head in, shall we?"

"Mmhm!" Terra enthusiastically nodded.

The two knocked on the house's door and waited as they heard loud shuffling from within. "C-coming!"

"Wow, he's in the middle of something," Terra said. "What do you suppose he could be working on?"

 _I mean, he could be doing the nasty too..._ Ignis thought as she tried not to laugh.

The door soon opened and they were greeted with someone who looked identical to the illustrations of Bill that Ignis was accustomed to from her world- but with whiskers and a large teeth like that of a Rattata's. The two remained speechless as they stared at this Rattata-like man. "...um," Terra squeaked.

Ignis faked a smile. "Y-you're, uh, Bill. Right?" she asked. This man, to her, was definitely Bill- but not?  _Rattata-Bill, I guess? Like that Ash-Greninja thing that was booming in the anime..._

The man then smiled. "Guess ya got me figured easily, huh?" he said. "Come in, come in! I'm still in the middle of somethin' neat, but feel free t'make yerselves home!"

 _Wacky,_ the ravenette thought. "Right. Let's go in."

Terra sent them both an odd look.

"So, what's got'cha coming all the way here, Ignis?" Rattata-Bill asked.

"Wait, you know each other?" Terra asked. "Personally!?"

"Yup!" Rattata-Bill said.

Ignis blinked. "Well, uh, I guess so."  _I do? Jesus, who the hell even is the original Ignis...?_

Rattata-Bill laughed. "Yer memories must be hella good then! I reckon ya'd have forgotten about me already- I rarely ever visited Pallet Town 'fter all!"

"Wait, if you did, how come I never saw you there?" Terra asked.

"Ya were really sick back then, I hear," Rattata-Bill said. "I actually thought Ignis here was Oak's daughter! Until he told me the real girl was sick in her bed."

Terra frowned. "Darn... lucky you, Ignis."

"Uh, yeah. Hahaha."  _Lucky my ass, I don't even recall._ Ignis cleared her throat. "So, Bill. What're you working on right now?"

"Oh, I'm just testing out a Rattata's bite force," he replied. "I've temporarily fused myself with Rattata DNA, so I can freely mess around and see how life works for them."

"...fusing with Pokémon DNA?" Terra asked. "That's impossible."

Ignis snickered. "Nothing's impossible, Terra. He's in front of us, after all," she said. "But I didn't think you'd actually come this far with Pokémon fusion." The girl nodded as she examined Rattata-Bill's whiskers. "Hm... truly, top percentage Rattata."  _Fuck, now I want to be a Pokémon too! ...not a furry though._

"Well, to be fair, I did have an accident once where I was merged with a live Clefairy..." Rattata-Bill said.

 _Oooh, right, that was how it went in the games!_ Ignis thought.  _No wonder now he's way past that, it's been eight years._

_...wait._

The girl rubbed her chin. "Wait, about that..."

"Hey, does that mean I can become a Pokémon too?" Terra asked.

"Hmm... I'm not sure," Rattata-Bill replied. "I haven't tested whether it's able to be used on just anybody yet... but I guess if someone like me can do it, anyone can."

Terra smiled widely. "So how does that work anyways?"

"Oh, it's complicated. I could go on for hours about this."

"We've got all the time! Right, Iggy?"

Ignis winced. "Well... uh, sure. You do that," she said.

Terra frowned. "You're not interested?"

"A bit interested, but not tempted enough to sit through it," Ignis said.  _I feel like I won't understand it anyways, as amazing as it sounds._ "Don't worry, I'll look around and maybe go check up on Hana. Take your time, Terra."

The brunette's smile widened. "Oh, thanks Iggy! You're the sweetest friend I have!" she said and dragged Rattata-Bill to a nearby couch to listen to him talk.

 _...that was kinda cute,_ Ignis thought. "Welp, let's look around now."

She spent few minutes walking around and looking at random research and progress within Bill's house. Most of it she only paid a few seconds of attention to, ultimately deciding she wouldn't understand them.

Eventually she came to an old book about Eevee and its evolutions.

"...huh." She flipped through the pages, smiling at photos taken up close of said Pokémon. "...I wonder if my Pokédex can scan this." Ignis took out her Pokédex and scanned the picture. Only the appearance was registered. "...darn," she muttered. However, just two seconds after that, a sound played and she saw the description appearing as well. "Wait... huh?"

The girl read through the entries quickly. The data for it certainly was there, despite her not owning any of Eevee's forms.

 _...hey, wait a second._ Ignis scrolled until she reached the top, where the entry for Bulbasaur was.

Appearance only.

She frowned. "The hell?"

Ivysaur's entry was also empty, save for appearance. She motioned for Basil- who was waiting for her near the door and yawning- to come. Upon coming closer, Ignis scanned the Ivysaur again and waited three seconds- on the last second, the data showed up.

 _Damn, I hate game convenience,_ Ignis thought. Now she knew- automatically registering data was impossible, but scanning long enough unlocks hidden data instead.

It was almost like the Pokédex itself was a game.  _Stupid Professor Oak._

Looking around once more, Ignis figured there was nothing left. "Right, I'll go check on Hana now," she decided and headed out the house quietly.

* * *

The blonde looked to her right, spotting her companion walking to her. "Oh, Miss Ignis. Are you finished? ...where's Miss Terra?"

Ignis snickered. "Sucker's too fascinated by all the science, so she's listening to Bill's story about... something."  _Pokémon and human fusion... I feel like I've seen a manga like that before,_ she thought. "How're you doing?"

"Oh, I've finally managed to catch the Ava!" Hana replied happily.

"Ava... oh, Abra." Ignis looked at the blonde's belt- a third Pokéball was now attached. "Ooh, that's great! Good job, Hana!"

"Heehee. It was really tricky, what with all the teleporting it did!" Hana said. "But Miss Ignis, you see, I eventually had Emma use Smokescreen! And then, while its vision has been clouded, I had Mel use Twineedle and weaken it! Then I could capture it and so I threw a Pokéball at it! That's how I got this new Pokémon!"

Igins blinked. She certainly hadn't expected Hana to become so passionate about this, but...  _what the hell, she's cute too._ The girl chuckled, petting the blonde's head- to her surprise. "Well, you seem really excited. Great job, Hana."

"I, um... t-thank you...?" Hana replied, unsure how to feel about being petted.  _...warm hands._

"So anyways, what are you up to now?" Ignis asked. "If you were waiting for us, it might actually take quite some time..." she said and looked back at the house. Terra also seemed quite passionate in science, so she didn't think the brunette would wrap things up anytime soon. "Guess I'll wait here with you."

Hana nodded. "I... see. That's fine with me." She scooted over slightly, where Ignis sat down next to her. "I was just... enjoying this scenery of this cape. Under this sunlight, the cape, the pathway, the wild Pokémon living their lives... it's just so peaceful."

Ignis tried not to show her confusion.  _Cape? What the hell, what cape? I don't see any hero capes around here..._ The girl simply nodded and looked at the medium-sized water body in front of them.  _Only a pretty nice lake or pond or whatever here..._

"Apparently, this place is known as the Cerulean Cape," Hana continued. "It seems to be rumored as a great romantic spot!"

 _...cape's a geographical term?_ "Uh, sure. I guess so," she muttered.  _Damn, I hate geography. But okay, so this is a 'cape'... right._

Completely distracted, she didn't realize that Hana was staring at her until a few seconds of silence passed. "O-oh, um. I'm sorry."

"No, uh, it's fine. What's bothering you?" Ignis asked.  _Right, I've got to stop thinking about pointless stuff. She'll get worried._

Hana looked away. "I was just... um, curious about you, Miss Ignis."

The ravenette blinked. "...what about me?" she asked.

"It's just... you and Miss Terra..." Hana said. "A-are you two, um... perhaps... 'together'?"

 _The hell's that supposed to mean?_ Ignis thought. She mulled over the question.  _Wait... oh, wait._

 _Oh._ "...oh."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Team IGNIS:** Ivysaur ("Basil" Lv21), Golbat ("Kro" Lv23), Pikachu(?) (Lv?)  
>  **Team TERRA:** Wartortle ("Squirty" Lv17), Butterfree ("Petal" Lv10), Nidoran(F) ("Ranne" Lv11)  
>  **Team HANA:** Charmeleon ("Emma" Lv18), Beedrill ("Mel" Lv14), Abra ("Yellow" Lv13)


	21. Me, Her, You, Saffron!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ignis briefly wonders about her and Terra's relationship, before they head to Saffron.

_...shit,_ Ignis thought. She was currently feeling troubled by two issues at once, alongside several distraction factors. Her first issue was something Bill mentioned- the Clefairy DNA mix-up incident. As the current point of time was eight years into the future of the actual game, Bill's reached a rather successful level in that experiment, but the fact that it still happened would mean that someone had to have helped him out during the mishap.

Who helped Clefairy-Bill back then, when it happened? No normal human would listen to him, they'd attempt to fight and catch him right away. The only person who'd stop to listen would be the clichéd kindhearted protagonist of a game.  _But that's who I am right now- the protagonist of the game... sort of. Does Red actually still exist in this universe, somewhere?_

...she mentally sighed. This wasn't the time for conspiracy theories, so she decided to shelve it deep inside her mind for later.

Next issue was... hm. "Me and Terra?" she voiced, feigning ignorance.  _Is Hana actually being perceptive of us? And where's this question coming from anyways?_ She had to wonder. Terra certainly did seem rather clingy with her, but the ravenette didn't feel like she'd have displayed any romantic hints towards the brunette.

 _I'm not even gay. I think._  She blinked.  _Wait, I'm gay for female fictional characters. Maybe I_ am _gay?_  This matter seemed troubling too, but she can't put it away while she's being asked about it.

 _Hm. Just what_ is _my relationship with Terra anyways?_

According to Terra herself, the original Ignis and Terra had done some damn kinky shit when they were younger than eighteen, during one party night... or something.  _Wait, isn't that underaged sex? ...can we be arrested?_ She groaned.  _Stop getting sidetracked, damn it. Okay, so... hm. I think she's cute. She's definitely clingy. But are we dating?_

"...M-Miss Ignis?" Hana said. "I-I'm sorry, was that question too, um, personal?"

"Huh?" Ignis blinked. The blonde was staring straight at her. "Oh, uh, it's fine. I was just... thinking," she said and looked back at the Cerulean Cape. "...I'm not sure, but I don't think we're that close yet."

"O-oh. I... see."

The two sat together in silence, watching some Goldeen and Magikarp appear on the water surface.

Ignis scratched her head.  _Well, now I feel awkward. Is this supposed to be awkward? The hell should I know._ She turned slightly to see Hana staring back. The blonde flinched and quickly looked frontwards again, cheeks slightly pink.  _Yeah, someone catching you staring would be kinda embarrassing, huh._ She chuckled. "Well, don't fret about it," she said. "I do admit Terra's kinda cute sometimes. But I think you're cute too!"  _Wait, I don't think that was the point of the question._

She was going to say something else to most likely mess her words up even more, but she stopped upon Hana turning redder. "..."

"...hm."  _Did I make things worse?_ Ignis looked back at the cape.  _More like, the hell were we actually discussing again?_

Then she heard the door open and turned to her right. "Oh, hey."

Terra skipped out the house. "Iggy! I'm done!" she said. "Can you believe it? His story was mad flippin' awesome!"

"W-was it now?" Ignis asked. "Maybe you can tell us all about it later at another Pokémon Center, haha..."  _Bedtime story quality, I bet._

"Aw, okay. But trust me, it will blow your mind! Literally!" Terra exclaimed.

"Did it blow yours too?"

"Yeah! Literally!"

"..."

Well, thinking back to the topic of love...  _she's an airhead. A cute airhead._ Ignis couldn't help but smile.

"What're you smiling for?" Terra asked.

"No, it's nothing, it's nothing." Ignis turned to the house. "You wait outside, I need to ask him a question. Won't take long."  _I'll at least get the name of whoever helped him during the Clefairy shtick,_ she figured.

"Alright, take your time," the brunette replied.

* * *

Several minutes later, the three were once again on their way. This time, they were headed south of Cerulean City.

Terra spotted another house on the way. "Why's there a house out here too?" she asked. "Is it another famous researcher, maybe?"

It seemed to excite the brunette, as shown by the expressions on her face, but Ignis chuckled. "Nah, that's a Pokémon Day Care."  _I remember tossing my Magikarp in there._ She faced her two companions. "You can leave any of your Pokémon in the owner's care, and they'll raise it and train it for you."

"How do you even know these things?" Terra muttered. "Well, regardless, I think I'm fine with mine. They'd be lonely without us after all!"

"Indeed, I believe it's not necessary for us right now," Hana said.

Ignis grinned. "Whatever you say then." She honestly held the same views, and thus doesn't particularly enjoy the idea of leaving it to others to raise her Pokémon. Of course, the exception was Magikarp, but she's experienced how long it took already without the knowledge that each experience point was gained for every step she took. It was only once, but she definitely didn't want to wait crazy long again.

Thus, the three walked past the Pokémon Day Care and reached a shelter area.

"From here is Saffron City," Hana said. "It's... where I came from, although I'm not too happy with coming back here. But I think I'll be fine."

"Uh, if you say so," Igins replied.  _Not a case of home sweet home, I see._ The three walked inside the connecting shelter, only to be stopped by a nearby guard who seemed to be lazing around, his back facing them and his legs swinging around with no enthusiasm.

"Hold on there, fellas. I'm afraid I can't let you pass," he said in a monotone.

Ignis blinked.  _Oh yeah, we're not supposed to be able to access Saffron City yet, although I can't really remember why that was so._ "What's the problem, officer?"

He groaned without even turning around. "I need to record those entering for the first time, but I'm feeling lazy because I'm thirsty... do me a favor and get me something to drink, won't you?" he said.

"...uh." Ignis and Terra exchanged glances.

"The heck, he's just a lazy bum," Terra said.

"Call me what you want, I'm still doing my job." The officer yawned. "I just need motivation."

Hana then stepped forward. "E-excuse me, sir."

"Hm?" The guard lazily turned around, staring at Hana. Then his eyes widened. "Wait, you're..."

"Y-yes, I am," Hana hushed, but to no avail.

"Hana Deborah!" The guard quickly got up and bowed. "I- I deeply apologize for my behavior! P-please go through with your friends!"

"...Hana Deborah?" Terra asked.

"Wasn't it Hana Kanazawa?" Ignis asked.

The blonde looked away. "Y-yes, well... i-it might have been a fake name..."

 _...why Kanazawa though?_ the otherworlder wondered. "Why a fake name though?"

"I- I don't believe it's safe to give out your real name to strangers..." Hana muttered.

"We gave our names to pretty much everyone we've met so far though," Terra pointed out.

The blonde fidgeted with her fingers. "B-but I didn't give my real name..." Feeling the two's confused stares, she flailed her arms around comically. "B-b-but I'm not saying I don't trust you two! I really, um, think you two really great friends that I trust, and, um..."

"...oh, hey, I just remembered," Ignis said. "Your father's part of Silph Co. and Team Rocket... and a high ranked person I guess?"

Hana nodded, nervous. "That's right... b-but again, I didn't hide my name out of distrust or anything..."

"Ah, it's fine," the ravenette ultimately said. "Who cares about that? Hana's still Hana, Deborah or Kanazawa or whatever. I trust you too, silly."

"..." Hana was speechless, but slightly touched.

Terra rolled her eyes. "Well, if Iggy says she's fine with it, then sure. I'm fine with that too," she eventually said. "At least now we know, I suppose."

"Miss Ignis... Miss Terra..."

The blonde smiled.

"I... I'll show you around my home city!" she suddenly declared. "I'm sure there will be many things that you both will enjoy, and if you'd like, there's even two sorts of gyms here too, Miss Ignis!" She grabbed Ignis' hand. "This will be my way of saying thanks, so please! You can count on me!"

 _Uh, this isn't even that big of a deal,_ Ignis thought. "R-right, okay."

"...no need to rush it, Hana," Terra muttered.

"O-oh, right. S-sorry," the blonde apologized and let go, feeling a bit embarrassed.

They casually walked through the shelter building and officially entered Saffron City. The view of all the buildings and tech around them really surprised Ignis, and definitely seemed to get Terra's fascination. It probably resonated somewhat with Hana, who probably missed her home city, but as Ignis stared at her blonde companion smiling at her home city, she chuckled.

 _Yeah, she's cute when she's not humble,_  the girl figured.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Team IGNIS:** Ivysaur ("Basil" Lv21), Golbat ("Kro" Lv23), Pikachu(?) (Lv?)  
>  **Team TERRA:** Wartortle ("Squirty" Lv18), Butterfree ("Petal" Lv11), Nidoran(F) ("Ranne" Lv13)  
>  **Team HANA:** Charmeleon ("Emma" Lv19), Beedrill ("Mel" Lv14), Abra ("Yellow" Lv13)


	22. Psychic's Sidekick

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ignis and her friends get mixed up in a scuffle between the Saffron Gym and the Fighting Dojo.

"This is Saffron City!" Hana said as she spread her arms open, twirling with glee, something Ignis found rather out of character for her.  _Or I suppose she just has another cute side that we haven't gotten to see that much._ "We've got the great Silph Co. here, and two gyms that you can challenge!"

"...wait, since Silph Co.'s stationed here, does that mean technically Team Rocket is also stationed here?" Terra asked.

"I... uh." Hana blinked. "...no! The bad Team Rocket we battled are fakes! These ones are the real, good people!" she eventually said.

 _I mean, Team Rocket isn't even supposed to be good anyways,_ Ignis thought.  _They_ do _plan to invade Sil... huh?_ "...wait, Hana, so... tell me about your Team Rocket again."

The blonde tilted her head, confused. "Um... okay. One of my father's colleagues wanted to further advance our technology to be able to achieve space exploration, so he started a small team of talented researchers. Together they are known as Team Rocket, and they've accomplished many huge feats within their fields, but all confidential things... from what my father told me."

 _Yeah, again, it's got nothing to do with rockets..._ Ignis thought. "And essentially... they're also mainly stationed here in Saffron City, in Silph Co., right?"  _I really have to stop using the word 'essentially', I don't know the specifics..._

Hana nodded. "Indeed, they are. Is something the matter?"

"...no, nothing."  _Why would they invade their own company...?_   Thinking about it made her head hurt, so once again, Ignis decided to shove it deep in her mind.  _I'll think about that crap later._ "Let's look around."

"It's a date then!" Terra exclaimed and clung to her childhood friend's arm.

"...with a tour guide?" Ignis asked.

Terra stared at Hana. "...right," she mumbled.

"L... let's get going!" Hana said as she began walking around.

* * *

Meanwhile, somewhere else in the city, in front of a gym...

"Today is the day!" a man shouted. "The day that we bring your gym down!"

On the opposing side, a long haired woman sighed. "...not this again," she mumbled. "How many times have you come to challenge and still lost?"

"S-shut up! Today's going to be different!" Motioning for his comrades to step up, he cracked his knuckles together. "This is the day where we'll get rid of your gym completely, to expand our dojo, and regain our leader's honor!"

Sighing, the woman shook her head disdainfully. "I'm really not a fan of battling, so this is starting to get on my nerves... a lot."

"Bring out your Pokémon again, Sabrina!" the man yelled.

"So be it... come, Wizard!" Sabrina threw a Pokéball, from which a certain yellow Psychic-type emerged. "Once more, we're showing these idiots a taste of defeat."

"Miss Sabrina!" her Gym Trainers that were all gathered behind her cried. "Please be careful!"

The Psychic-type Gym Leader smiled. "It will be fine, I assure you."

"Maybe that's what you think!" her opponent exclaimed. "Come on, everyone! We're taking her Pokémon down together! Primeape!"

"Machop! Machoke!"

"Mankey! Primeape! Machop!"

"Primeape! Mankey!"

The other trainers paled. "T-that's not fair! Miss Sabrina, we'll help!"

Sabrina shook her head. "No, it's fine. I'll show them the consequences of ganging up several against one," she told her followers, then turned to the dojo members. "It seems you all greatly underestimated me, if you lot truly believe that number is power."

"Can it! This time we'll grasp victory in our burning fists of rage!" one man said. "Everyone, Karate Chop!"

All their Fighting-types screeched vigorously as they leaped at Sabrina's Alakazam. However, before their fists even inch any closer to it, they were completely stuck midair, floating like a cluster of satellites.

"W-what!?"

Sabrina sighed. "I see you four buffoons don't know enough about me nor my Pokémon," she said with disappointment. "Wizard here is an Alakazam, which are extremely powerful psychics and whose powers are further amplified by their spoons. This is one of my best Pokémon, to top it off." She glared at the four dojo Trainers. "It seems you four also don't learn properly from Kiyo. Psychic-types are effective against Fighting-types, didn't anyone ever teach you?"

Without even giving out the command, her Alakazam used its powers to slam all eight Fighting-type Pokémon to the ground. It seemed to be so intense, they lost the battle immediately.

"I-impossible!" the men yelled collectively. "How did you... you didn't even give it an order!"

"I don't need to say anything out loud to my Pokémon," she replied. "Our telepathic connection is good enough."

The men recalled their Pokémon. "Damn it! ...but this is where your luck ends, woman!"

 _...what luck?_  Sabrina found herself wondering.

"This time, we've brought something new to counter your Psychic-type usage..." All four men grinned and threw out another Pokéball each. "We've got a group of Bug-types to destroy you!" Together, a total of four Heracross landed in front of her.

She clicked her tongue and scanned them with her eyes. "Hm... it's slightly annoying, but it seems to be quite a new addition."  _From what I'm seeing, their estimated level must be quite low..._ "Nothing too big for Wizard, I suppose..."  _But it wouldn't hurt to get some help with these damn bugs..._ Sabrina looked back.

Her followers were now terrified again. "T-they're Bug-types... us Psychic-type users can't possibly win against them..."

 _Ugh. Do these idiots really not know how to try?_ Sabrina sighed and looked forward again. "This is somewhat frustrating, I suppose..." she said, before noticing something far behind her opponents. She smiled. "Well, I think I've found the perfect person to get rid of the bugs for me."

"W-what was that?" one of the men frowned. "You coward, face us alone!"

Sabrina glared at him. "You've got a lot of guts saying  _that_ to me," she said before raising her hand. He squeaked and cowered in fear, before realizing he wasn't being affected. The group exchanged confused glances, until a girl flew past them towards Sabrina. "Hey, you. No time to explain, would you mind helping me get rid of these bugs?"

The girl, who was... Ignis, frowned. _Sabrina!?_  "What the whuh?"  _What the hell just happened to me?_ she thought. Terra and Hana soon ran up to them, confused.

"W-what the heck was  _that!?_ " Terra exclaimed. "W-why'd you just magically fly like that, Iggy!? I didn't... oh, it's an Alakazam," she said. "...is this a kidnapping?"

"N-no, I don't think so," Hana replied. "Miss Sabrina! It's good to see you again!"

Sabrina whistled. "Oh, Mr. Deborah's girl. Nice to see you again too... am I mistaken in assuming those are Pokéballs on your belt?"

Hana shook her head. "N-no, you are right. I went on a journey and met these new friends of mine."

The Psychic-type smiled. "Good friends, I see. Ignis, Hana, I could use both of your help with these bugs."

Ignis frowned. "Uh, right."  _What the heck is even going on here?_ She faced the four men, all robed with martial arts clothes, and frowned.  _Oh hey, they're the dojo people from Saffron._ "Huh, I don't remember them having Heracross"

"...I'm not sure what you're supposed to be 'remembering', but if you're talking about their other Pokémon, I've already gotten rid of them," Sabrina said. "These are just new, low-leveled additions to their team."

"W-wow. Your Alakazam must be really powerful," Terra noted. Wizard the Alakazam nodded and smiled.

Ignis blinked. "Wait, even if Bug-types are super effective on Psychic-types, wouldn't you be just fine anyways?" she asked. "Especially if they're low-leveled and new..."  _Wait, how did she even measure their levels?_ She frowned.  _Actually, how are levels even measured in this world?_

"...just help me out here," Sabrina muttered.

The otherworlder stared at the Psychic-type expert, who looked away.  _...wait, is she scared of bugs? ...too?_ "...what about Venonat and Venomoth? They're Psychic and Bug-types."

"T-the ones I'm used to are fine, these aren't!" Sabrina exclaimed. "You're my sidekick now, stop asking!"

"Hey! Stop ignoring us!" the four men said. "Besides, if you think our new Heracross are pushovers, then think again! We've got something special to help us with defeating you, Sabrina!"

Hana frowned. "Pardon me, but what do these ruffians have against you?" she asked.

Sabrina shrugged. "I don't know, and I don't care enough to ask."

"...I see."

The leading man of the group shoved a hand into his clothes. "If you think your increased numbers change anything, it doesn't. Especially because now we have this!" He pulled out a small device and four items that looked like wristbands. "Come now, you four. Wear this!" The four Heracross hesitantly took the bands and wore them on their insect arms.

 _The hell are those?_ Ignis and Sabrina thought.

"And now, with special stones we've given them, let me show you something magnificent!" the man said. "This will blow your minds, and even better- it'll help us win this battle!"

"...special stones...!" Ignis widened her eyes. The only words that immediately came to her were: "Mega Evolution!"

"Megalo what now?" Terra asked.

Mega Evolution. A phenomenon introduced in the sixth generation of the Pokémon games. She may have stopped playing around the fifth generation's Black 2 and White 2, but she promptly kept up with Pokémon news for a while until the spark faded. Nevertheless, she stuck around long enough to know about these newly introduced temporary evolution that granted certain Pokémon a sort of power-up, with new appearances and all.

It didn't leave too much of an impression on her, but she was the sort of person who always liked lores and mechanics behind fictional things. Mega Evolution was something achievable by the strong bonds between a Trainer and their Pokémon, but it can also be forced as she had seen in that movie with some volcano Pokémon- which caused intense pain, from what she recalled.

The girl now realized what those wristbands  _probably_ were. "Wait, don't do that!" Ignis exclaimed.

"Witness the undiscovered evolution of Heracross!" the man said and pushed the slider on his device up, ignoring her. Immediately, the four Heracross began clutching their heads in pain, a small circular spot on their horn's underside- or their foreheads- began shining.

"W-what're they up to?" Sabrina asked.

"Pikachu! Quick Attack that device!" Ignis exclaimed. The Pikachu besides her didn't question anything and sped towards the man holding the device, slamming it out of his hands. It fell to the ground, and Pikachu slammed it once more, completely shattering it. However, the Heracross kept its bright mysterious glow. "Fuck!"

"Iggy, what's going on?" Terra asked. "What's happening to those Heracross?"

 _It doesn't seem like Mega Evolution's a known thing yet here..._ She gritted her teeth. "It's temporary evolution, but forced. It's extremely painful to the Pokémon!"

Slowly, the Heracross' forms slowly changed. Their ribbon-like horns grew larger and melded into a large single-pointed horn, their arms grew bulkier, and they gained a long spiky Pinocchio-like nose. Those were only the notable changes- there were several others that didn't seem too important to note, but everyone except Ignis stared at the new forms, surprised.

"W-what the- Heracross can't evolve!" Terra exclaimed. "A-at least, that's what we discovered years ago... what is this I'm seeing!?"

Sabrina stepped forward. "You four! What did you..."

"Tch, it doesn't matter even if the machine's broken. This is our chance to win!" They laughed together and motioned the four Heracross to get into a battle stance. "Today's the day you lose, Sabrina! This is all thanks to the help of that generous Team Rocket organization!"

The group's eyes widened. "Team Rocket!?"

 _...God, why are they involved with_ everything  _h_ _ere!?_ Ignis screamed mentally.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Team IGNIS:** Ivysaur ("Basil" Lv21), Golbat ("Kro" Lv23), Pikachu(?) (Lv?)  
>  **Team TERRA:** Wartortle ("Squirty" Lv18), Butterfree ("Petal" Lv11), Nidoran(F) ("Ranne" Lv13)  
>  **Team HANA:** Charmeleon ("Emma" Lv19), Beedrill ("Mel" Lv14), Abra ("Yellow" Lv13)


End file.
